Seminar of the School of Physical Sciences
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Title: Positional Information Readout in Ca2+ Signaling
Speaker: Vaibhav Wasnik
(University of Geneva, Geneva)
Date: January 24, 2018 (Wednesday)
Time: 16:00 hrs (4:00 pm)
Venue: Seminar Room , First Floor, School of Physical Sciences ( SPS ), JNU
Abstract: Living cells respond to spatial signals. Signal transmission to the cell interior often involves the release of second messengers like Ca2+ . They will eventually trigger a physiological response by activating kinases that in turn activate target proteins through phosphorylation. Here, we investigate theoretically how positional information can be accurately read out by protein phosphorylation in spite of rapid second messenger diffusion. We find that accuracy is increased by binding of the kinases to the cell membrane prior to phosphorylation and by increasing the rate of Ca2+ loss from the cell interior. These findings could explain some salient features of conventional protein kinases C.