Section: New Results

Deleterious effect of receptor clustering on canonical signaling pathways

BR Caré, HA Soula (Beagle)

Classical framework for analyzing system biology pathways assumed that the cells are a well mixed and stirred medium. This hypothesis can dramatically fail in the case of membrane based stage of signaling. Due to microdomains membrane receptors are colocalized. Using individual based-model we show that this clustering seriously impairs the overall ligands binding as well as several pathways downstream. We contend that this unexpected effect is a very simple tool available for a cell to adjust its response.