Reviews of Physiology Biochemistry and Pharmacology最新文献

Once multicellularity was thriving, a key development involved the emergence of epithelial layers that separated "inside" from "outside". Most epithelia then generate their own transepithelial electrical signals. So electrical forces were instrumental in the development of epithelial tissues, which themselves generate further electrical signals. Epithelia also developed extracellular basement membranes which act as spatially diverse scaffolds to organize multiple molecular interactions, dependent on electrical forces.Epithelia and basement membranes were constructed using electrical forces and their evolution had electrophysiological consequences.

Cell membranes contain multiple charged lipids that bind proteins dynamically and their spatial organization on the inner/outer membrane leaflet, or in spatially localized areas has considerable biological importance. Myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate (MARCKS) proteins and their roles as electrostatic switches are one example covered. Cell surface charge needs to be monitored and regulated continually and the roles of lipid flippases and scramblases and their electrical regulation also are considered.

Several neurological diseases arise from abnormal protein aggregation within neurones and this is closely regulated by phase separation. One such is motor neurone disease and aberrant aggregation of superoxide dismutase. Again these events are regulated by electrical forces that are examined.

It is now well-recognized that biological catalysis depends crucially on spatially regulated electrical forces for optimal efficiency. Several examples of the mechanisms underpinning this will be covered, as will the experimental evidence that oriented electrical fields can enhance specific chemical reactions.

Epithelial sheets evolved the capacity to fold and reform to create a lumen and therefore new environments. For humans, forming a lumen during gastrulation has been viewed as perhaps the most crucial biological process of our life and it is regulated by multiple electrical forces.

How did life come into existence? How was the first membrane formed on Earth? And where? What were the conditions that promoted membrane creation and how were electrical forces essential for this to occur?

One of the most important and challenging biological events of recent times has been the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since the underpinning argument behind this book is the ubiquity of electrical forces driving multiple disparate biological events, consideration of key aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins is included. Electrical regulation of spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, membrane protein, and envelope protein is included, with several of their activities regulated by LLPS and the multivalent and π-cation and π-π electrical forces that drive phase separation.

Epithelial tissues and the basement membranes they sit on did not appear for billions of years. Their appearance was delayed most likely by a lack of oxygen, which is required for collagen synthesis, and which only began to build up following the Great Oxygenation Event ~ 2.4 billion years ago. Both the oxygenation of Earth and the multiple roles of collagen require regulation by electrical forces.

Multiple single-celled life forms existed for millennia before some individual cells found ways of gathering together to form multicellular organisms. Several of the key elements that drove this step-change in life on Earth involved electrical forces.

Packaging of DNA into viruses in some cases involves remarkably sophisticated electrical control mechanisms. One example is how the T4 bacteriophage uses an electrostatically driven motor to pump DNA into the viral capsid.