Signal Transduction now in paperback, is a text reference on cellular signalling processes. Starting with the basics, it explains how cells respond to external cues (hormones, cytokines, neurotransmitters, adhesion molecules, extracellular matrix, etc), and shows how these inputs are integrated and co-ordinated. The first half of the book provides the conceptual framework, explaining the formation and action of second messengers, particulary cyclic nucleotides and calcium, and the mediation of signal pathways by GTP-binding proteins. The remaining chapters deal with the formation of complex signalling cascades employed by cytokines and adhesion molecules, starting at the membrane and ending in the nucleus, there to regulate gene transcription. In this context, growth is an important potential outcome and this has relevance to the cellular transformations that underlie cancer. The book ends with a description at the molecular level of how signalling proteins interact with their environment and with each other through their structural domains. Each main topic is introduced with a historical essay, detailing the sources key observations and experiments that set the scence for recent and current work.

Table of Contents
Prologue: Signal transduction, origins and personalities. First messengers Receptors GTP-binding proteins and signal transduction Effector enzymes coupled to GTP-binding proteins: adenylyl cyclase and phospholipase The regulation of visual transduction Calcium and signal transduction Calcium signalling Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation:protein kinases A and C Growth Factors :setting the framework Signalling pathways operated by receptor protein tyrosine kinases Signalling pathways operated by non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases Phosphoinositide 3-kinases Signal transduction to and from adhesion molecules Adhesion molecules and trafficking of leukocytes Signalling through receptor bound protein serine-threonine kinases Protein dephosphorylation and protein phosphorylation Protein domains and signal transduction