Page 143 - The Miracle of Hormones

Communication Within The Cell

ogy is employed in the process of this communication, is a much greater
wonder than a microscopically small computer. This is because a cell is a
piece of flesh and your whole body, from your eyes with which you are
reading this book to your hands you are holding it with, is formed by
cells working together. In the body of each one of us, there are 100 trillion
small organisms possessed of a highly advanced communications sys-
tem. Now let us examine the system by which the message reaching the
cell is transmitted inside the cell, and let us see the wonder of creation
manifested in a piece of flesh one percent of a millimeter in size.

The Journey of a Message-Carrying Hormone
Inside the Cell

When a messenger molecule reaches the cell, it attaches to the
antenna on the cell's membrane. In the course of this attachment, the
message is relayed to the antenna. The message received by the antenna
is then transmitted to the tail located in the inner section of the cell. The
body of the microscopic communications antenna enters the fluid (cyto-
plasm) between the nucleus of the cell and its membrane. The connection
established between the hormone and the antenna initiates a chemical
reaction. This reaction causes the antennae, which were individual units,
to form into groups of two, and brings about a change in the shape of the
tail sections. This operation, called "phosphorilation," is a change that oc-
curs when the enzymes in the body section add phosphate to the tail.
Several molecules and proteins add technical support to this sys-
tem. For example, the GTP molecule and the proteins called "G" for short,
have an important effect at this stage; they supply the phosphorous for
the phosphorilation. For the system to function, it is necessary that many
factors come into play at the right moment.
This operation carried out by the enzymes has an important role in
the relay of information. This operation within the cell is intended to be a
call to the proteins known to be communication modules in the cyto-

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