second messenger

American

noun

Biochemistry.

any of various intracellular chemical substances, as cyclic AMP, that transmit and amplify the messages delivered by a first messenger to specific receptors on the cell surface.

second messenger Cultural

A molecule that relays messages in a cell from a receptor on a cell membrane to the final destination where an action within the cell is to take place. (See signal transduction pathway.)

Etymology

Origin of second messenger

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

second messenger

The second messenger does not recognize the signal from the receptor.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

Calcium ion is a widely used second messenger.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

Therefore, they do not directly affect the transcription of target genes, but instead initiate a signaling cascade that is carried out by a molecule called a second messenger.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

I have sent a messenger and later I have even sent a second messenger, urging the bandits to send a competent agent to expedite our negotiations for the liberation of Mrs. Pawley and Mr. Corkran.

From Time Magazine Archive

He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to him through Jacob Marley's intervention.

From A Christmas Carol by George Alfred Williams

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023