摘要
机械力是生物体生命活动中普遍存在的一种物理刺激,高等生物对机械力的感受是听觉、触觉、压觉以及平衡觉等重要生理过程的生物学基础。生物体中的感受器细胞对机械力信号的转导是上述感受的关键,这一信号转导过程可将细胞外机械力刺激转换为细胞的电信号或者化学信号。"门控-弹簧"模型("Gating-Spring"model)在细胞水平定量地描述了机械力信号转导的原理,但是其分子基础(包括机械力信号转导通路的分子组分,结构基础以及力学原理)依然有待探索。近年来,人们以果蝇为模式生物对上述问题进行了系统的研究,取得了重要的进展。本文对"门控-弹簧"理论进行了概述,并对在果蝇系统中取得的研究进展以及有待解决的问题进行综述和展望。
The sense of mechanical stimuli(e.g. force or deformation) in the environment underlies several important physiological processes,for example the perception of sound,touch,pain and acceleration. The key step in mechanosensation is to convert the extracellular mechanical stimuli into cellular electrical or chemical signals. This process is termed as mechanotransduction. Based on mechanical and electrophysiological measurements,"Gating-Spring" theory was proposed as a general model to describe the cell biological mechanism of mechanotransduction. However,despite efforts made in several model organisms,the molecular basis of the "Gating-Spring" model remains elusive. In recent years,several key progresses have been made using the mechanoreceptors of Drosophila melanogaster as the models. This article introduces the "Gating-Spring" theory and reviews the recent research progresses on the fly mechanotransduction.
出处
《生理学报》
CAS
CSCD
北大核心
2016年第1期87-97,共11页
Acta Physiologica Sinica
基金
supported by Initiative Funding from Tsinghua University and Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences,China