Martinac Boris, Kloda Anna
Department of Pharmacology, QEII Medical Center, The University of Western Australia, WA 6009, Crawley, Australia.
Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2003 May-Jul;82(1-3):11-24. doi: 10.1016/s0079-6107(03)00002-6.
According to the recent revision, the universal phylogenetic tree is composed of three domains: Eukarya (eukaryotes), Bacteria (eubacteria) and Archaea (archaebacteria). Mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels have been documented in cells belonging to all three domains suggesting their very early appearance during evolution of life on Earth. The channels show great diversity in conductance, selectivity and voltage dependence, while sharing the property of being gated by mechanical stimuli exerted on cell membranes. In prokaryotes, MS channels were first documented in Bacteria followed by their discovery in Archaea. The finding of MS channels in archaeal cells helped to recognize and establish the evolutionary relationship between bacterial and archaeal MS channels and to show that this relationship extends to eukaryotic Fungi (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) and Plants (Arabidopsis thaliana). Similar to their bacterial and archaeal homologues, MS channels in eukaryotic cell-walled Fungi and Plants may serve in protecting the cellular plasma membrane from excessive dilation and rupture that may occur during osmotic stress. This review summarizes briefly some of the recent developments in the MS channel research field that may ultimately lead to elucidation of the biophysical and evolutionary principles underlying the mechanosensory transduction in living cells.
根据最近的修订，通用系统发育树由三个域组成：真核生物域（真核生物）、细菌域（真细菌）和古菌域（古细菌）。机械敏感（MS）离子通道已在属于所有这三个域的细胞中被记录，这表明它们在地球生命进化过程中很早就出现了。这些通道在电导、选择性和电压依赖性方面表现出极大的多样性，同时具有被施加在细胞膜上的机械刺激门控的特性。在原核生物中，MS通道首先在细菌中被记录，随后在古菌中被发现。在古菌细胞中发现MS通道有助于认识和建立细菌与古菌MS通道之间的进化关系，并表明这种关系延伸到了真核生物真菌（粟酒裂殖酵母）和植物（拟南芥）。与它们的细菌和古菌同源物相似，真核细胞壁真菌和植物中的MS通道可能有助于保护细胞质膜免受渗透胁迫期间可能发生的过度扩张和破裂。本综述简要总结了MS通道研究领域的一些最新进展，这些进展最终可能有助于阐明活细胞中机械感受转导背后的生物物理和进化原理。
