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EpigenesisWorkshopsPROGRAMME D'ÉPIGÉNOMIQUE - GENOPOLE ® ATELIER ÉPIGENÈSE
mercredi 24 juin 2009 10h00 – 17h00 : NEWSYNBIO 09h30 – 10h00 : Accueil 14h00 Fin de la séance publique 14h00 – 17h00 : SMABio-Hyperstructures 09h30 – 10h00 : Accueil Membrane elasticity : a plausible mechanism for signal transmission ?Francisco Monroy Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain The great success of allostery concept in describing the propagation of conformational changes through extended lattices of protein molecules has stimulated new hypotheses on the mechanisms of signal transmission in cell membranes [2]. Lipid conformational spread has been invoked as a plausible mode of transmission of a local event to a remote location in the membrane. However, lateral lipid diffusion is revealed too slow, thus inefficient, in transmitting mechanical information over long distances. Mechanical signals can be however efficiently propagated as traveling waves through the membrane, understood as a continuous elastic medium. In this seminar we will review the basic concepts of membrane mechanics essential to understand how far and how fast a mechanical disturbance propagates along a lipid bilayer. This continuous approach will be discussed as a possible functional mode of operation for the remote transport of conformational/mechanical information in biological membranes.\\ References |