Break One Link, Change the Message

You'll learnhow changing one link in a signaling pathway changes the message, since disrupted is not off.

A signal transduction pathway is a chain of specific molecular interactions — ligand to receptor, receptor to relay, relay to response. Change any one link and the message changes, and the trap is assuming that “disrupted” means “off.” Ten short steps; press Next for each one.

AP BIOLOGY · 10 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · DISRUPTED ≠ OFF · LOSS vs GAIN OF FUNCTION · v5

ligand · receptor · relay · response

Before you start

What you're looking at

The intact pathway drawn as a chain: ligand, receptor, relay, response, lighting up in order with the ligand present.

The question

When one link in the chain is altered, what happens to the message the pathway carries?

Step 1 / 10