Cell Signaling Reactions Single-Molecular Kinetic Analysis

This book encompasses the exciting developments and challenges in the fast-moving and rapidly expanding research field of single-molecule kinetic analysis of cell signaling that promises to be one of the most significant and exciting areas of biological r

  • PDF / 11,876,844 Bytes
  • 335 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
  • 110 Downloads / 227 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


Yasushi Sako

l

Masahiro Ueda

Editors

Cell Signaling Reactions Single-Molecular Kinetic Analysis

Editor Yasushi Sako Cellular Informatics Laboratory RIKEN Advanced Science Institute Wako, Japan [email protected]

Masahiro Ueda Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences Osaka University, and JST, CREST Suita, Japan [email protected]

ISBN 978-90-481-9863-4 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9864-1 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9864-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010937431 # Springer ScienceþBusiness Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer ScienceþBusiness Media (www.springer.com)

Preface

The biological cell, the minimal unit of life, is an extremely complicated reaction web. The human genome project has revealed that 20,000–30,000 genes are encoded in single human cells; these genes are thought to produce more than 100,000 protein species through alternative splicing and chemical modification. The major challenge of biology in the post-genomic era is to address the issue of how such a multi-element system, composed of huge numbers of protein species and other macro- and micro-molecules, brings emergence of the complex and flexible reaction dynamics that we call “life.” Biological macromolecules such as proteins are themselves complicated systems made up of a huge number of atoms. Proteins often show complex structural and functional dynamics. It has been demonstrated that single-molecule techniques are powerful tools in the study of proteins, because time series of the individual events carried out by a single molecule provide information that cannot be obtained with ensemble-molecule measurements and that is indispensable in analyses of the complex behaviors of biological macromolecules. Single-molecule measurements have recently been extended to the study of multi-molecular systems and even living cells. Because these single-molecule techniques are so effective in resolving the complex reactions of individual molecules, they are now expected to offer a powerful technology for the study of the complicated reaction web in living cells. This book deals with single-molecule analyses of the kinetics and dynamics of cell signaling reactions. Several other books have already introduced the techniques and applications of single-molecule measurements of various biological events. However, as far as we know, this book is the first to concentrate on cell signaling. Analysis of the cell signaling that regulates the complex behaviors of cells should provide the keys required to understand the emergence of life. We intend this book to contain as many k