130 / 155
Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling
Poster Abstracts
125
54-POS
Board 27
A Robust and Sensitive Method to Quantify Receptor Responses in the Nano Range
Shin-Shiou Lin
, Huai-hu Chuang.
Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
In the brain, many hormones and neurotransmitters activate cellular signal transduction pathways
via G-protein coupled receptors. G alpha proteins are speedily activated subsequent to the
formation of a ternary complex from the direct interaction of receptors with their cognate
ligands. Among a host of PLC-coupled pathways, despite all signaling through the canonical
Gαq as well as downstream effectors thereof, each receptor is still capable of eliciting events of a
distinct, or even more so, unique spatiotemporal profile. To elucidate the mechanism with which
the complexity arises, we performed single cell analysis to monitor GPCR activation in real time.
The GPCR of interest was made a channel fusion to facilitate receptor counting, with the ligand-
induced response tracked simultaneously. By this method, we quantitatively compared the
receptors for acetylcholine (muscarinic type) with those for angiotensin. Our results underpin the
robustness of GPCR signaling, which might explain the prevalence of such transduction network
in Nature.