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Transmembrane signalling

Membrane messengers

Nature Chemistry volume 9, pages 406–407 (2017)Cite this article

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Life has evolved elaborate means of communicating essential chemical information across cell membranes. Inspired by biology, two new artificial mechanisms have now been developed that use synthetic messenger molecules to relay chemical signals into or across lipid membranes.

In the first article, a team led by Jonathan Clayden and Simon Webb set out to mimic the mechanism of biological GPCR signal transduction using a minimal synthetic system (Fig. 1c)4. The GPCR superfamily of proteins communicate across cell membranes via conformational changes induced by the binding of a diverse range of ligands; from flavour and scent molecules to hormones and neurotransmitters. These conformational changes in the receptor modulate the binding to proteins on the other side of the membrane. A single binding event can lead to activation of enzyme-catalysed cascades within the cell thereby amplifying the initial chemical signal. Indeed, such revelations led to the award of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Lefkowitz and Kobilka in 2012. The Clayden/Webb team hypothesized that a peptide-like oligomer that can fold into a helical conformation could be used to communicate conformational change across a membrane (Fig. 1e).

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Figure 1: Transmembrane signalling mechanisms.

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  1. Scott L. Cockroft is at the EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black Building, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, UK,

    Scott L. Cockroft

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  1. Scott L. Cockroft
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Correspondence to Scott L. Cockroft.

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Cockroft, S. Membrane messengers. Nature Chem 9, 406–407 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2775

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