화학공학소재연구정보센터
Nature, Vol.388, No.6639, 243-249, 1997
A Multivalent Pdz-Domain Protein Assembles Signaling Complexes in a G-Protein-Coupled Cascade
How are signalling molecules organized into different pathways within the same cell? In Drosophila, the inaD gene encodes a protein consisting of five PDZ domains which serves as a scaffold to assemble different components of the phototransduction cascade, including the principal fight-activated ion channels, the effector phospholipase C-beta and protein kinase C, Null inaD mutants have a dramatically reorganized subcellular distribution of signalling molecules, and a total loss of transduction complexes. Also, mutants defective in a single PDZ domain produce signalling complexes that lack the target protein and display corresponding defects in their physiology. A picture emerges of a highly organized unit of signalling, a ’transducisome’, with PDZ domains functioning as key elements in the organization of transduction complexes in vivo.