Chemoreception in Unicellular Eukaryotes

  • Judith Van Houten
Chapter
Part of the NATO ASI Series book series (NSSA, volume 188)

Abstract

Every organism is surrounded by chemicals and each has the means to extract information from this chemical environment and to respond appropriately. This process, chemoreception, underlies the sensory processes of taste and smell in vertebrates and invertebrates, and of Chemotaxis and chemokinesis in unicellular organisms. There is no unifying theme among the types of chemical stimuli that affect chemoreceptors, but within this confusion of compounds there is order, because each stimulus fits into the context of the life of the organism: folic acid attracts the paramecia and shine-mold amoebae that feed on bacteria, the stimulus source; amino acids attract lobsters and catfish that prey on fresh or decaying muscle; pheromones are commonly used by insects or protozoans to attract mates. There are, however, aspects common to the various chemosensory transduction systems: they all appear to be initiated at the membrane surface of a receptor cell by the interaction of a stimulus with a receptor molecule (or perhaps in some cases, the membrane directly), and, subsequently, this interaction is transduced into intracellular messengers. These second and third messengers are limited in number and, for the most part, consist of cyclic nucleotides, permeant ions, phosphoinositides, diacyl glycerol, arachidonic acid and internal pH levels.

Keywords

Adenylate Cyclase Olfactory Receptor Guanylate Cyclase Olfactory Epithelium Unicellular Eukaryote 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1989

Authors and Affiliations

  • Judith Van Houten
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of ZoologyUniversity of VermontBurlingtonUSA

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