Kirkness Karen B, Sharkey John, Scarlata Suzanne
Health Professions Education Unit, Hull York Medical School, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Irish College of Osteopathic Medicine, National Training Centre, T23 C6P5 Cork, Ireland.
Cells. 2025 Jul 11;14(14):1066. doi: 10.3390/cells14141066.
Calcium plays a major role in all cellular functions, and its regulation is important in all aspects of human health. This key role calcium plays in cell function can be traced to its unique molecular coordination geometry, which is often overlooked in understanding calcium function. In this review, we integrate calcium's ability to form various complexes with proteins and small molecules with its role as a key signaling atom. We argue that calcium's ability to vary its coordination structures, compared to magnesium's rigid geometry, explains its importance in biological functions. By examining calcium-mediated proteins, such as those containing EF-hand domains and those that assemble and stabilize the extracellular matrix in tissue organization, we demonstrate how calcium's varied geometric coordination serves as both a signaling molecule and a regulator of physiological homeostasis.
钙在所有细胞功能中都起着主要作用，其调节对人类健康的各个方面都很重要。钙在细胞功能中所起的这一关键作用可追溯到其独特的分子配位几何结构，而这在理解钙的功能时常常被忽视。在本综述中，我们将钙与蛋白质和小分子形成各种复合物的能力与其作为关键信号原子的作用结合起来。我们认为，与镁的刚性几何结构相比，钙改变其配位结构的能力解释了它在生物学功能中的重要性。通过研究钙介导的蛋白质，如那些含有EF手结构域的蛋白质以及在组织构建中组装和稳定细胞外基质的蛋白质，我们展示了钙多样的几何配位如何既作为信号分子又作为生理稳态的调节因子。
