TCBG Seminar
"Signaling by Bacterial Chemoreceptors: A Dynamic Story" Tweet

Professor
John "Sandy" Parkinson
Biology
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT
Monday, September 28, 2015
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute
Abstract
Motile E. coli cells track gradients of attractant and repellent chemicals in their environment with transmembrane chemoreceptor proteins. These receptors operate in cooperative arrays to produce large changes in the activity of a signaling kinase CheA in response to small changes in chemoeffector concentration. Recent research has provided much deeper understanding of the structure and function of core receptor signaling complexes and the architecture of higher-order receptor arrays, which in turn has led to new insights into the molecular signaling mechanisms of chemoreceptor networks. Current evidence supports a new view of receptor signaling in which stimulus information travels within receptor molecules through shifts in the dynamic properties of adjoining structural elements rather than through a few discrete conformational states.