Molecular mechanisms of cross-talk between growth factors and nuclear
receptor signaling
D. Picard
Département de Biologie Cellulaire, Université
de Genève, Sciences, III 30 quai
Ernest-Ansermet, CH -1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
Abstract: Signaling pathways can be linear, but more complex
patterns are common. Growth factors and many other extracellular signals
cannot directly enter cells and transduce their information via membrane-bound
receptors. In contrast, steroid receptors are members of the nuclear
receptor superfamily and await their cognate hormones inside the cells.
These two types of signaling pathways are extensively intertwined and
crosstalk at many different levels. A wide range of extra- and intracellular
signals, including a variety of growth factors, can activate the transcriptional
activity of steroid receptors in the absence of their cognate hormones.
Conversely, steroid receptors lead a double life. By coupling to signaling
molecules that mediate signal transduction of extracellular factors,
they can elicit very rapid nongenomic responses. The signaling pathways
of steroid-independent activation of steroid receptors, on the one hand,
and of nongenomic signaling by steroid receptors, on the other, display
a remarkable reciprocal relationship suggesting that these two modes
of signaling crosstalk may be two faces of the same coin.
*Report from a SCOPE/IUPAC project: Implication of
Endocrine Active Substances for Human and Wildlife (J. Miyamoto and
J.Burger, editors). Other reports are published in this issue,
pp. 1617-2615.
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