Study guide chapter 11

Cell Communication
Campbell et al. Biology. 8th ed., Chapter 11

Study hint: While working through this study guide, make a list of key terms in
the right margin. Usually, these terms are boldfaced in the study guides or they
appear in the referenced figures. Consult one of the glossaries if you are not
sure of definitions.

0. Application
1. I cannot think of his name, but recently I saw an actor on TV who talked
about the fact that as an adult dwarf he is mostly hired to play children.
Explain how a mutation in a gene coding for receptor tyrosine kinases
leads to achondroplasia (dwarfism.
2. Explain how the cholera toxin causes the symptoms of cholera by
disrupting G-protein-signaling pathways (p. 211).
3. And finally, have you heard of the drugs Pepcid AC? How does it work?

I. The big picture

We all start out as a zygote. How do individual cells know whether they are
supposed to become skin cells or liver cells? Cells of different tissues perform a
variety of tasks. Parietal cells, for example, produce HCl to aid digestion. How
does a parietal cell know when to produce HCl and how much? What tells a
cell to behave this way or another? What if a cell misbehaves, if, for example, a
parietal cell produced too much HCl and cause heartburn?
4.

Why do cells have to communicate with each other? What is the

language cells use?
5. Using parietal cells as examples, explain why it is as important to stop a
signal/response than it is to receive it.
6. Review figure 2.18 and explain how the drug morphine succeeds in
relieving pain and causing euphoria. What are the ears of cells? What
language do drugs use to communicate with cells?

II. Overview

7. Describe the signal transduction pathway in mating yeast. Explain why

we believe these pathways evolved before the first multicellular organisms
appeared on Earth (Fig. 11.2 and 11.16).
8. What is the adaptive advantage of quorum sensing in bacteria? Note
that we will study an example of this in lab.
9. Distinguish between direct, paracrine, synaptic, and hormonal
communication using the table below (consult Fig. 11.4 and 11.5):
Direct
Example:
From ___ to
(cell type)
Via

Synaptic

Paracrine

Hormonal

Neuron to
muscle
Junction or
cell surface
molecules

Kind of signal
Local
regulator
Example
(message)

Produce
insulin

10. List and briefly define the three stages of cell signaling (Fig. 11.6).

III. Signal Reception and the Initiation of Transduction

11. How do cells know whether to respond to a particular signal?
12. Describe the nature of a ligand-receptor interaction and state how such
interactions initiate a signal-transduction system.
13. Explain how testosterone turns on genes (Figure 11.8).
14. Explain why receptors are widely used as drug targets.
15. Compare and contrast membrane receptors using the following table (Fig.
11.7).
G-protein-linked
receptors
Form
Function
(Importance)
What happens

Tyrosine-kinase
receptors

Ion channel
receptors

when signal binds

Disease example

IV. Transduction
16. Describe two advantages of using a multistep pathway in the transduction
stage of cell signaling.
17. Explain how a signal molecule can produce a cellular response without
entering the target cell.
18. Describe how phosphorylation propagates signal information (Fig. 11.9).
19. How is the phosphorylation cascade stopped?
20. Explain why a single cell may require hundreds of different protein
kinases.
21. Explain why protein phosphatases are so important.
22. Define the term second messenger. Briefly describe the role of these
molecules in signaling pathways (Fig. 11.11).
23. Describe how cyclic AMP is formed and how it propagates signal
information in target cells (Fig. 11.10).
24. Changes in cytosolic Ca++ concentration can stimulate life after a
fertilization event, and they can trigger death (apoptosis). Why can slight
changes of Ca2+ levels in the cytosol have such huge effects (11.12 and
11.13)?
25. How can such a widely used second messenger as Ca 2+ trigger very
different reactions in different cells at different times (see figure below).

26. How are signals amplified (Figure 11.13)?

V. Cellular Responses to Signals

27. Give examples for cellular responses to signals from the outside.
28. Describe how signal information is transduced into cellular responses in
the cytoplasm and in the nucleus (Fig. 11.14 and 11.15).
29. Explain why different types of cells may respond differently (five different
ways) to the same signal molecule (Fig. 11.17).

30. Explain how scaffolding proteins help to coordinate a cells response to

incoming signals (Fig. 11.18).

VI. Apoptosis
31. What program happens in apoptosis, and what is the advantage of this
program?
32. Describe three situations in which cells undergo apoptosis.
33. Describe the molecular basis of apoptosis in C. elegans (Figure 11.20).
34. In many cancers, cells with damaged DNA fail to undergo apoptosis.
What kind of mutation would you expect in the genes homologous to Ced9, Ced-4 and Ced-3?

Essay question
Describe the protein kinase cascade stimulated by epinephrine (Figure 11.15) or
the yeast mating factor (Figure 11.16). How can it go wrong? What happens if
it goes wrong? Explain the usefulness of protein kinase cascades and
mechanisms to shut them down. In order to get full credit you should give
explanations for every step of this pathway. Define all technical terms you use.
Note: You should be prepared to describe either of the two pathways. You do
not have to know specific names such as Fus3 or glycogen phosphorylase.