Intracellular calcium signals. Extracting information on channel clusters from the observation of cluster signals.

PONCE DAWSON, SILVINA

Palmas del Mar

Otro; PASI School ?Nano-Bio: The Intersection of Bio, Condensed Matter and Solid State Physics?; 2010

IP3 receptors (IP3Rs) are calcium channels that are located on the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). They need to bind calcium and IP3 to become open and let calcium ions flow from the lumen of the reticulum into the cytosol. IP3Rs are organized in clusters of about 500nmx500nm on the ER membrane. Confocal microscopy allows the observation of calcium signals in situ without resolving the inner cluster structure. Local signals (puffs) that involve calcium release through channels of the same cluster are the building blocks of waves that propagate longer distances in the cell. Thus, it is of interest to determine the dynamics of the IP3R cluster as a whole. In this talk I will discuss the experiments and the analyses that can be performed to derive quantitative information on the dynamics of IP3R clusters. I will later on discuss how this information can be used in models of intracellular calcium to study more global signals.