The biochemistry of cell: information delivery (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 23:29 (1374 days ago) @ David Turell

Another form of chemical communication using a glutamate channel, which transmits more than glutamate:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/twisty-molecular-elevator/?utm_source=Cosmos...

"A team, led by Ichia Chen of the University of Sydney, has modelled the shape of an extremely important molecular machine – the glutamate transporter. Understanding this shape and process helps to explain how brain cells “talk” to each other.

"Cells communicate by sending chemical signals, mostly in the form of the neurotransmitter glutamate. These glutamate signals are released from a nerve through glutamate transporters, which sits on the surface of the cell and open and close to let the signal through at the right time, pumping the glutamate out when open.

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"The team captured the shape of the transporter in incredible detail with cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and found that it looked like a “twisting elevator” inside the cell membrane, they report in their paper, published in Nature.

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"The images showed that the glutamate transporter could multi-task. The first function was to pump glutamate through the membrane and the second is to transport other molecules.

“'These molecular machines use a really cool twisting, elevator-like mechanism to move their cargo across the cell membrane,” says senior author Renae Ryan, from the University of Sydney.

“'But they also have an additional function where they can allow water and chloride ions to move across the cell membrane."

Comment: We are still on the outside looking in. We do not know the text of the messages or how they are interpreted by the cells. All we know is cells do talk to each other. Be sure to look at the illustrations of a molecule that can twist around to perform a job. Just another molecular machine that demands the recognition of design.