Department for Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, Julius-von-Sachs Institute of the University Wuerzburg, Julius-von-Sachs Platz 2, D-97082 Wuerzburg, Germany.
FEBS Lett. 2012 Jul 4;586(14):1846-59. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2012.02.043. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), together with Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)-β and Activins/Inhibins constitute the TGF-β superfamily of ligands. This superfamily is formed by more than 30 structurally related secreted proteins. Since TGF-β members act as morphogens, either a strict relation between a particular ligand to a distinct cellular receptor and/or temporospatial expression patterns of ligands and receptors is expected. Instead, only a limited number of receptors exist implicating promiscuous interactions of ligands and receptors. Furthermore, in complex tissues a multitude of different ligands can be found, which signal via overlapping subsets of receptors. This raises the intriguing question how concerted interactions of different ligands and receptors generate highly specific cellular signals, which are required during development and tissue homeostasis.
骨形态发生蛋白（BMPs）与转化生长因子（TGF）-β和激活素/抑制素一起构成了 TGF-β超家族配体。这个超家族由 30 多种结构相关的分泌蛋白组成。由于 TGF-β成员作为形态发生素，因此预计特定配体与特定细胞受体之间存在严格的关系，或者配体和受体的时空表达模式存在严格的关系。相反，仅存在少数受体，暗示配体和受体的混杂相互作用。此外，在复杂的组织中可以发现多种不同的配体，它们通过受体的重叠亚群发出信号。这就提出了一个有趣的问题，即不同的配体和受体如何协同相互作用产生高度特异性的细胞信号，这些信号在发育和组织稳态过程中是必需的。
