This includes a discussion of the possible significance of equilibrium critical points in biological membrane systems that normally exist under non-equilibrium conditions. The need for a new model to replace the celebrated Nicolson-Singer fluid-mosaic model of biological membranes is also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Unlimited ultrasensitivity in a kinase/phosphatase “”futile cycle”" has been a paradigmatic example of collective behaviour in multi-enzyme systems. However, its analysis has relied on the Michaelis-Molten reaction mechanism, which remains widely used

despite a Century of new knowledge. Proteasome inhibitor Modifying and demodifying enzymes accomplish different biochemical tasks; the donor that contributes the modifying group is often ignored without the impact of this time-scale separation being taken into account: and new forms of reversible modification are now known. We exploit new algebraic methods of steady-state analysis to reconcile the analysis of multi-enzyme systems with single-enzyme biochemistry using zero-order

ultrasensitivity as an example. We identify the property of “”strong irreversibility”", in which product re-binding is disallowed. We show that unlimited ultrasensitivity is preserved for a class of complex, strongly irreversible reaction mechanisms and determine the corresponding saturation conditions. We show further that unlimited ultrasensitivity arises from a singularity in a novel “”invariant”" selleck chemical that summarises the algebraic relationship between modified and unmodified substrate. We find that this singularity also underlies knife-edge behaviour in allocation of substrate between modification states, which has implications for the coherence of futile cycles within an integrated tissue. When the enzymes are irreversible, but not strongly

so, the singularity disappears in the form found here and unlimited ultrasensitivity may no longer be preserved. The methods introduced here are widely applicable to other reversible modification systems. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“PAC1 is PACAP (pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide) preferring receptor belonging to class B G protein couple receptor Amino acid (GPCR) mediating the most effects of PACAP. The dimerization of PAC1 has been proven by our previous research. The bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) combined with fluorescence confocal microscope image was used in this research to explore the profiles of PAC1 dimers during the activation by PACAP. Fluorescence metry and cAMP assays were both used to detect the functions of the dimerization of PAC1 on the nucleus induced by PACAP. It was found that PACAP in concentration lower than 10 nM induced the de-dimerization of PAC1 on the plasma membranes and the re-dimerization of PAC1 on the nucleus.