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Summary: SENSOR NOT
TRANSPORTER
We all know that glucose occupies a central
position in cellular carbon and energy
metabolism. However, glucose has another
little-known function; it also works as a
signalling molecule regulating food intake,
body weight, blood glucose levels and
gastrointestinal reflexes. Which poses the
question, are eukaryotic cells able to sense
external glucose concentrations directly?
Apart from a few gustatory
chemoreceptors, the only proteins that have
so far been suggested as possible glucose
sensors are two glucose transporter
homologues found in yeast, both of which
transduce the external glucose signal to
control gene expression in the cell.
However, little else was known about these
sensor proteins until scientists from Los
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