Related papers: A Monte Carlo study of ligand-dependent integrin s…
Integrins mediate cell adhesion and are essential receptors for the development and functioning of multicellular organisms. Integrin activation is known to require both ligand and talin binding and to correlate with cluster formation but…
Integrin is an important transmembrane receptor protein which remodels the actin network and anchors the cell membrane towards the extracellular matrix via mechanochemical pathways. The clustering of specific lipids and lipid-anchored…
Lck (lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase) is an enzyme which plays a number of important roles in the function of immune cells. It belongs to the Src family of kinases which are known to undergo autophosphorylation. It turns out…
Mechanical forces acting on cell adhesion receptor proteins regulate a range of cellular functions by formation and rupture of non-covalent interactions with ligands. Typically, force decreases the lifetimes of intact complexes…
Cell membranes interact via anchored receptor and ligand molecules. Central questions on cell adhesion concern the binding affinity of these membrane-anchored molecules, the mechanisms leading to the receptor-ligand domains observed during…
Integrins are transmembrane proteins involved in hemostasis, wound healing, immunity and cancer. In response to intracellular signals and ligand binding, integrins adopt different conformations: the bent (resting) form; the intermediate…
Collective cell migration is key during development, wound healing and metastasis and relies on coordinated cell behaviors at the group level. Src kinase is a key signalling protein for physiological functions of epithelia, as it regulates…
Many signalling functions in molecular biology require proteins bind to substrates such as DNA in response to environmental signals such as the simultaneous binding to a small molecule. Examples are repressor proteins which may transmit…
Adhesion processes of biological membranes that enclose cells and cellular organelles are essential for immune responses, tissue formation, and signaling. These processes depend sensitively on the binding constant K2D of the…
Integrin signaling regulates cell migration and plays a pivotal role in developmental processes and cancer metastasis. Integrin signaling has been studied extensively and much data is available on pathway components and interactions. Yet…
Cell adhesion proteins are transmembrane proteins that bind cells to their environment. These proteins typically cluster into disk-shaped or linear structures. Here we show that such clustering patterns spontaneously emerge when the protein…
Many types of cells can sense external ligand concentrations with cell-surface receptors at extremely high accuracy. Interestingly, ligand-bound receptors are often internalized, a process also known as receptor-mediated endocytosis. While…
Death ligand mediated apoptotic activation is a mode of programmed cell death that is widely used in cellular and physiological situations. Interest in studying death ligand induced apoptosis has increased due to the promising role of…
Nascent adhesions are submicron transient structures promoting the early adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix. Nascent adhesions typically consist of several tens of integrins, and serve as platforms for the recruitment and…
The utilization of multiple phosphorylation sites in regulating a biological response is ubiquitous in cell signaling. If each site contributes an additional, equivalent binding site, then one consequence of an increase in the number of…
When cells collide, they often exhibit "contact inhibition of locomotion" (CIL), a behavior in which cells repolarize and migrate away from the site of contact. Experimental CIL outcomes are highly variable - why? Here, we develop a minimal…
Adhesion-dependent cells actively sense the mechanical properties of their environment through mechanotransductory processes at focal adhesions, which are integrin-based contacts connecting the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton. Here…
Macromolecular complexation leading to coupling of two or more cellular membranes is a crucial step in a number of biological functions of the cell. While other mechanisms may also play a role, adhesion always involves the fluctuations of…
A Monte Carlo method is given to compute the binding affinity of a ligand to a protein. The method involves extending configuration space by a discrete variable indicating whether the ligand is bound to the protein and a special Monte Carlo…
The spatio-temporal organization of proteins and the associated morphological changes in membranes are of importance in cell signaling. Several mechanisms that promote the aggregation of proteins at low cell surface concentrations have been…