Illuminating Cyclic Nucleotides: Sensors for cAMP and cGMP and Their Application in Live Cell Imaging

Abstract

Cyclic nucleotide monophosphates (cNMPs) act as second
messengers in eukaryotic and prokaryotic signaling pathways. Even
though cNMPs regulate a wide variety of processes, the effects they
bring about can be highly specific, and are governed not just by the set
of effectors present in a cell type, but also by upstream extracellular factors
that modulate cNMP levels in the cell. Here, we describe various
eukaryotic effectors of cAMP and cGMP and their use as tools to understand
cNMP compartmentalization and temporal fluctuations inside cells.