Researcher investigates how cells tune in to important information
Friday, January 25, 2013 - 07:01
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—Every minute of its existence, a living cell must assess and analyze myriad bits of information—everything from the temperature of its environment to the chemical makeup of its surroundings. Sometimes, these inputs cause a cell to change how it functions, but other times, the information may not lead to a measurable change in the cell's activity. Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered how a single molecule in a cell can tune its response to different strengths of an input, an important advance in understanding how a whole cell varies its behavior in different situations.