Our recent studies on sensory transduction: from vision to taste.
The transduction in photoreceptors and chemoreceptors has common mechanisms. In photoreceptors, activation of rhodopsin by light triggers the enzymatic cascade mediated by a G-protein, transducin. In olfactory cells activation of the receptor molecule by odorant triggers the enzymatic cascade mediated by a G-protein, Golf. In taste receptor cells biochemical studies have also suggested a metabotropic transduction hypothesis, but we recently identified a cationic channel that was directly gated by a bitter taste substance. By reviewing these recent studies carried out in our laboratory in the last 10 years, the transduction machinery in these sensory receptor cells are summarized.
Kaneko
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Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Keio University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan. kaneko@physiol.med.keio.ac.jp
D002628:Chemoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*