title: Dynamic visualization of calcium-dependent signaling in cellular microdomains.
abstract: Cells rely on the coordinated action of diverse signaling molecules to sense, interpret, and respond to their highly dynamic external environment. To ensure the specific and robust flow of information, signaling molecules are often spatially organized to form distinct signaling compartments, and our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that guide intracellular signaling hinges on the ability to directly probe signaling events within these cellular microdomains. Ca(2+) signaling in particular owes much of its functional versatility to this type of exquisite spatial regulation. As discussed below, a number of methods have been developed to investigate the mechanistic and functional implications of microdomains of Ca(2+) signaling, ranging from the application of Ca(2+) buffers to the direct and targeted visualization of Ca(2+) signaling microdomains using genetically encoded fluorescent reporters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Sohum
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: jzhang32@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000502:physiology*; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D002118:Calcium
keywords: Biosensors; Calcineurin; Calmodulin; Compartmentalized signaling; FRET; Live-cell imaging