Related papers: The Energy Sensor AMPK: Adaptations to Exercise, N…
The cellular energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a metabolic regulator that mediates adaptation to nutritional variations in order to maintain a proper energy balance in cells. We show here that suckling-weaning and…
AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a critical energy sensor, regulating signaling networks involved in pathology including metabolic diseases and cancer. This increasingly recognized role of AMPK has prompted tremendous research efforts…
The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade, an evolutionarily conserved motif present in all eukaryotic cells, is involved in coordinating critical cell-fate decisions, regulating protein synthesis, and mediating learning…
Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) is the nearly ubiquitous "energy currency" of living organisms, and thus is a crucial participant in the majority of enzymatic reactions. The standard models in enzyme kinetics generally ignore the temporal…
We mathematically modeled the receptor-activated MAP kinase signaling by incorporating the regulation through cellular phosphatases. Activation induced the alignment of a phosphatase cascade in parallel with the MAP kinase pathway. A novel…
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways play an essential role in the transduction of environmental stimuli to the nucleus, thereby regulating a variety of cellular processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation…
In various biological systems information from many noisy molecular receptors must be integrated into a collective response. A striking example is the thermal imaging organ of pit vipers. Single nerve fibers in the organ reliably respond to…
The neuron consumes energy from ATP hydrolysis to maintain a far-from-equilibrium steady state inside the cell, thus all physiological functions inside the cell are modulated by thermodynamics. The neurons that manage information encoding,…
Living organisms continuously harness energy to perform complex functions for their adaptation and survival while part of that energy is dissipated in the form of heat or chemical waste. Determining the energetic cost and the efficiency of…
Mitochondria are critical organelles in eukaryotes that produce the energy currency ATP. In nerve axons, mitochondria are known to align at almost regular intervals to maintain a constant ATP concentration, but little is known about the…
The mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) family of proteins is involved in regulating cellular fate activities such as proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Their fundamental importance has attracted considerable attention on…
Cells generally convert nutrient resources to useful products via energy transduction. Accordingly, the thermodynamic efficiency of this conversion process is one of the most essential characteristics of living organisms. However, although…
Muscles sense internally generated and externally applied forces, responding to these in a coordinated hierarchical manner at different time scales. The center of the basic unit of the muscle, the sarcomeric M-band, is perfectly placed to…
Based on a thermodynamic analysis of the kinetic model for the protein phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle, we study the ATP (or GTP) energy utilization of this ubiquitous biological signal transduction process. It is shown that the…
Muscle uses Ca2+ as a messenger to control contraction and relies on ATP to maintain the intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis. Mitochondria are the major sub-cellular organelle of ATP production. With a negative inner membrane potential,…
Interconvertible enzyme cascades, exemplified by the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, are a frequent mechanism in signal transduction pathways. There has been much speculation as to the role of these pathways, and how their…
Mitochondrial adenine nucleotide (AdN) content is regulated through the Ca2+-activated, electroneutral ATP-Mg/Pi carrier (APC). The APC is a protein in the mitochondrial carrier super family that localizes to the inner mitochondrial…
Incubation with noradrenaline (norepinephrine) of isolated membranes of rat's brain corpus striatum and cortex, showed that ionic-magnesium (Mg2+) is required for the neurotransmitter activatory response of Adenylate Cyclase [ATP…
Heat dissipation is ubiquitous in living systems, which constantly convert distinct forms of energy into each other. The transport of thermal energy in liquids and even within proteins is well understood but kinetic energy transfer across a…
Thermogenesis is a physiological activity of releasing heat that originates from intracellular biochemical reactions. Recent experimental studies discovered that externally applied heat changes intracellular signaling locally, resulting in…