Endoplasmic reticulum, calcium properties

In the sarcoplasm of smooth muscle cells there is a membrane bound compartment usually referred to as the SR by analogy with skeletal muscle. However, it is not at all clear that the interior of these membrane-bound regions are continuous as they are in skeletal muscle. The primary properties of this system seem to be quite similar to those of the endoplasmic reticulum of many other cell types. In general, calcium is concentrated into the membrane-bound reticulum and then released to initiate the characteristic action of the cell. 

Sorin, A., Rosas, G., and Rao, R., 1997, PMR1, a Ca2+-ATPase in yeast Golgi, has properties distinct from sarco/endoplasmic reticulum and plasma membrane calcium pumps. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 9895-9901... 

SOCs, also known as ICRAC (calcium-release activated channels), have been observed in a wide range of cell types (Parekh and Penner, 1997). The defining property is that depletion of intracellular calcium stores results in increased calcium influx at the plasma membrane. The actual SOC that carries this calcium influx may vary between cells, and cloning studies have identified transient receptor potential channel (TRPC) (Parekh and Penner, 1997, Vandebrouck et al., 2002b) and CRACM1 (Peinelt et al., 2006) as candidate genes. Also, the exact mechanism by which SOCs are activated by store depletion has only been partly elucidated, with a role suggested for a calcium sensor on the endoplasmic reticulum (see Peinelt et al., 2006) and for IP3 (Kiselyov et al., 1998). 

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