title: Activation of signaling receptors: do ligands bind to receptor monomer, dimer, or both?
abstract: A recent study by Dietz et al. using single-molecule fluorescence microscopy techniques demonstrates that, in the absence of the ligand InlB, the MET receptor exists as both a monomer and a dimer on the cell membrane, and addition of the ligand leads to increased MET dimerization. Under the crowded conditions of the cell membrane, dimer formation may be a common phenomenon for cell surface receptors. Ligand binding to both monomeric and dimeric receptors may provide parallel routes to receptor activation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. hzhou4@fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Huan-Xiang
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Zhou