Cellular communication (biology)

Cellular communication is an umbrella term used in biology and more in depth in biophysics and biochemistry to identify different types of communication methods between living cells. Some of the methods include cell signaling among others. This process allows millions of cells to communicate and work together to perform important bodily processes that are necessary to survival. Both multicellular and unicellular organisms heavily rely on cell-cell communication.

Intercellular communication refers to the communication between cells. Membrane vesicle trafficking has an important role in intercellular communications in humans and animals, e.g., in synaptic transmission, hormone secretion via vesicular exocytosis. Inter-species and interkingdom signaling is the latest field of research for microbe-microbe and microbe-animal/plant interactions for variety of purposes at the host-pathogen interface.

Reception occurs when the target cell (any cell with a receptor protein specific to the signal molecule) detects a signal, usually in the form of a small, water-soluble molecule, via binding to receptor protein. Reception is the target cell's detection of a signal via binding of a signaling molecule, or ligand. Receptor proteins span the cell’s plasma membrane and provide specific sites for water-soluble signaling molecules to bind to. These trans-membrane receptors are able to transmit information from outside the cell to the inside because they change conformation when a specific ligand binds to it. By looking at three major types of receptors, (G protein coupled receptors, receptor tyrosine kinases, and ion channel receptors) scientists are able to see how trans-membrane receptors contribute to the complexity of cells and the work that these cells do. Cell surface receptors play an essential role in the biological systems of single- and multi-cellular organisms and malfunction or damage to these proteins is associated with cancer, heart disease, and asthma.

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