Intracellular neuronal calcium sensor proteins: a family of EF-hand calcium-binding proteins in search of a function

Intracellular neuronal calcium sensors (NCS) constitute a rapidly growing family of calcium-binding proteins which belong to the superfamily of EF-hand proteins. The NCS family includes as subgroups the recoverins and GCAPs (guanylyl cyclase-activating proteins), which are primarily expressed in ret...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cell and tissue research 1999-01, Vol.295 (1), p.1-12
Main Authors: Braunewell, K H, Gundelfinger, E D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Calcium - metabolism
Calcium-Binding Proteins - chemistry
Calcium-Binding Proteins - metabolism
Calmodulin - metabolism
Humans
Nerve Tissue Proteins - chemistry
Nerve Tissue Proteins - metabolism
Neurons - metabolism
Signal Transduction
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Intracellular neuronal calcium sensors (NCS) constitute a rapidly growing family of calcium-binding proteins which belong to the superfamily of EF-hand proteins. The NCS family includes as subgroups the recoverins and GCAPs (guanylyl cyclase-activating proteins), which are primarily expressed in retinal photoreceptor cells, and the frequenins and VILIPs (visinin-like proteins), which are widely but differentially expressed in the nervous system. In this review the recent developments in elucidating the functional activities of NCS proteins on signal transduction pathways in neurons are surveyed and discussed. We will focus our attention on calcium-dependent membrane association by the so-called calcium-myristoyl switch as a possible mechanism of signal transduction and on the roles of NCS proteins in intraneuronal signaling cascades, which are best studied in the visual and olfactory systems.
ISSN:0302-766X
1432-0878
DOI:10.1007/s004410051207