THE ASSEMBLING OF MOLECULAR SWITCHES BASED ON THE CHEMICAL MECHANISM OF CELL TRANSMEMBRANE SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

Liying Zhang, Shengdi Fan, Baoquan Liu and Chunshan Quan

Key Lab of Biotechnology and Biosource Utilization, Ministry of Education, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian, 116600, China

Abstract

In cell transmembrane signal transduction system, the receptor of the signal transduction system acts as a switch. It shows ON state when it receives some signals, and shows OFF state when it receives other signals. In our laboratory, the ions switch, which is based on the chemical mechanism of transmembrane ions channels type of cell signal transduction pathway is assembled and its diagram is shown in Fig. (1).

Fig. (1). The diagram of ions switches and the chemical mechanism of ions channel type cell transmembrane signal transduction system.

The self-assembled bilayer vesicles from independently synthesized peptide lipids are used as the platforms. Under the ultraviolet light, the peptides parts of the receptor are tethered by the light sensor units, and the secondary structures of the peptides is broken. The ions are enclosed in vesicles, and the molecular switch shows OFF state. However, when the visible light exists, the light sensor receives the Vis optical signal and changes its conformation, the peptides parts of the receptor are released from the tethering state. The ions outflux occurs in response to the forming of the ions channel, and the molecular switch shows ON state.

*Supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (21172028, 21272031, 21372037).