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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Mar 22.
Published in final edited form as: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2006 Apr 3;45(15):2348–2368. doi: 10.1002/anie.200502794

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Possible methods for regulating inter-receptor communication. (A) The distance between receptors can influence the transfer of information between receptors or other proteins. (B) The relative orientation of two receptors can influence the alignment of enzyme active sites and govern the rates of covalent modifications that result in signal generation. (C) The number of receptors in a complex can influence the intensity of a signal. Additionally, the likelihood that receptors will come into contact increases when the numbers of localized receptors is greater. (D) The subcellular location of a receptor controls the access of the receptor to some intracellular signaling proteins. Changes in position can govern the flow of information through a receptor or cluster of receptors. (E) When co-receptors act as negative regulators, ligand binding can lead to activation of receptors by separation. This receptor mechanism is conceptually related to proximity-induced activation, but the underlying molecular interactions are quite different.