Science Signaling Podcast for 12 July 2016: Adaptor proteins limit signaling

This Podcast features an interview with Steven Wiley, senior author of a Research Article that appears in the 12 July 2016 issue of Science Signaling, about how the abundance of adaptor proteins and feedback regulators affect the flow of information downstream of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Information flows through a signaling pathway by sequential interactions between core components of the pathway, many of which have enzymatic activity. Adaptor proteins do not directly participate in relaying the signal and do not have enzymatic activity, but are important for signaling because they facilitate interactions between the core components. Using quantitative methods, Shi et al demonstrated that core components of the EGFR pathway were highly abundant in both normal cells and cancer cells. However, adaptor proteins were present in much lower abundance in both cell types, indicating that it is the abundance of these proteins that limit signaling downstream of EGFR. The authors also found that differences in EGFR signaling between different cell types likely resulted from the variable abundance of feedback regulators.Listen to Podcast.