4.6 Review

Calmodulin in Paramecium: Focus on Genomic Data

Journal

MICROORGANISMS
Volume 10, Issue 10, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10101915

Keywords

calcium; calmodulin; cell signaling; ciliate; Paramecium

Categories

Funding

  1. program Consolidacion de Grupos de la Junta de Andalucia [BIO-210]
  2. Plan Estatal 2017-2020, Spain [PID2019-103850GB-I00]
  3. Consejeria de Educacion, Juventud y Deportes-Comunidad de Madrid, Spain [B2017/BMD-36]
  4. European Funds for Regional Development
  5. Social European Fund

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Calcium is a universal second messenger that plays a key role in cellular signaling. Calmodulin is a small protein that binds calcium ions and controls many essential aspects of cell physiology. In Paramecium, calmodulin is involved in regulating cilia function and enzyme activity.
Calcium (Ca2+) is a universal second messenger that plays a key role in cellular signaling. However, Ca2+ signals are transduced with the help of Ca2+-binding proteins, which serve as sensors, transducers, and elicitors. Among the collection of these Ca2+-binding proteins, calmodulin (CaM) emerged as the prototypical model in eukaryotic cells. This is a small protein that binds four Ca2+ ions and whose functions are multiple, controlling many essential aspects of cell physiology. CaM is universally distributed in eukaryotes, from multicellular organisms, such as human and land plants, to unicellular microorganisms, such as yeasts and ciliates. Here, we review most of the information gathered on CaM in Paramecium, a group of ciliates. We condense the information here by mentioning that mature Paramecium CaM is a 148 amino acid-long protein codified by a single gene, as in other eukaryotic microorganisms. In these ciliates, the protein is notoriously localized and regulates cilia function and can stimulate the activity of some enzymes. When Paramecium CaM is mutated, cells show flawed locomotion and/or exocytosis. We further widen this and additional information in the text, focusing on genomic data.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available