Loading Pathway...
Error: Pathway image not found.
Hide
Pathway Description
Calcium signaling
Homo sapiens
Signaling Pathway
Created: 2025-05-20
Last Updated: 2025-10-02
Calcium signaling is a highly coordinated cellular process that translates extracellular signals into precise intracellular responses through a network of molecular interactions and transport mechanisms. Activation begins when ligands such as histamine, oxytocin, or epidermal growth factor bind to their respective receptors, triggering G protein-coupled cascades. For example, histamine activates the H2 receptor, which stimulates the Gs protein and subsequently adenylyl cyclase, increasing cAMP levels and activating protein kinase A (PKA). PKA phosphorylates phospholamban, relieving its inhibition of the SERCA pump and promoting calcium reuptake into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Concurrently, activation of Gq-coupled receptors like the oxytocin receptor stimulates phospholipase C (PLC), which hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) into diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3). IP3 binds to IP3 receptors on the ER membrane, inducing calcium release into the cytosol. This depletion of ER calcium stores activates stromal interaction molecule (STIM), which translocates to ER-plasma membrane junctions to activate ORAI channels, facilitating extracellular calcium influx through store-operated calcium entry (SOCE). Calcium ions also shuttle between the cytosol, mitochondria, and ER, maintaining cellular calcium homeostasis. Elevated cytosolic calcium binds calmodulin-like proteins, activating downstream effectors such as myosin light chain kinase and nuclear factors of activated T-cells (NFAT), which translocate to the nucleus to regulate gene expression. Together, these pathways integrate to control vital processes including muscle contraction, metabolism, immune responses, and gene transcription, while dysregulation of calcium signaling is associated with various diseases such as cardiovascular disorders and neurodegeneration.
References
Calcium signaling References
Wu, M. M., Buchanan, J., Luik, R. M., & Lewis, R. S. (2006). Ca2+ store depletion causes STIM1 to accumulate in ER regions closely associated with the plasma membrane. The Journal of cell biology, 174(6), 803–813. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200604014
Fahrner, M., Grabmayr, H., & Romanin, C. (2020). Mechanism of STIM activation. Current opinion in physiology, 17, 74–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cophys.2020.07.006
Trebak, M., Kinet, JP. Calcium signalling in T cells. Nat Rev Immunol 19, 154–169 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-018-0110-7
Kikuno R, Nagase T, Ishikawa K, Hirosawa M, Miyajima N, Tanaka A, Kotani H, Nomura N, Ohara O: Prediction of the coding sequences of unidentified human genes. XIV. The complete sequences of 100 new cDNA clones from brain which code for large proteins in vitro. DNA Res. 1999 Jun 30;6(3):197-205. doi: 10.1093/dnares/6.3.197.
Pubmed: 10470851
Ota T, Suzuki Y, Nishikawa T, Otsuki T, Sugiyama T, Irie R, Wakamatsu A, Hayashi K, Sato H, Nagai K, Kimura K, Makita H, Sekine M, Obayashi M, Nishi T, Shibahara T, Tanaka T, Ishii S, Yamamoto J, Saito K, Kawai Y, Isono Y, Nakamura Y, Nagahari K, Murakami K, Yasuda T, Iwayanagi T, Wagatsuma M, Shiratori A, Sudo H, Hosoiri T, Kaku Y, Kodaira H, Kondo H, Sugawara M, Takahashi M, Kanda K, Yokoi T, Furuya T, Kikkawa E, Omura Y, Abe K, Kamihara K, Katsuta N, Sato K, Tanikawa M, Yamazaki M, Ninomiya K, Ishibashi T, Yamashita H, Murakawa K, Fujimori K, Tanai H, Kimata M, Watanabe M, Hiraoka S, Chiba Y, Ishida S, Ono Y, Takiguchi S, Watanabe S, Yosida M, Hotuta T, Kusano J, Kanehori K, Takahashi-Fujii A, Hara H, Tanase TO, Nomura Y, Togiya S, Komai F, Hara R, Takeuchi K, Arita M, Imose N, Musashino K, Yuuki H, Oshima A, Sasaki N, Aotsuka S, Yoshikawa Y, Matsunawa H, Ichihara T, Shiohata N, Sano S, Moriya S, Momiyama H, Satoh N, Takami S, Terashima Y, Suzuki O, Nakagawa S, Senoh A, Mizoguchi H, Goto Y, Shimizu F, Wakebe H, Hishigaki H, Watanabe T, Sugiyama A, Takemoto M, Kawakami B, Yamazaki M, Watanabe K, Kumagai A, Itakura S, Fukuzumi Y, Fujimori Y, Komiyama M, Tashiro H, Tanigami A, Fujiwara T, Ono T, Yamada K, Fujii Y, Ozaki K, Hirao M, Ohmori Y, Kawabata A, Hikiji T, Kobatake N, Inagaki H, Ikema Y, Okamoto S, Okitani R, Kawakami T, Noguchi S, Itoh T, Shigeta K, Senba T, Matsumura K, Nakajima Y, Mizuno T, Morinaga M, Sasaki M, Togashi T, Oyama M, Hata H, Watanabe M, Komatsu T, Mizushima-Sugano J, Satoh T, Shirai Y, Takahashi Y, Nakagawa K, Okumura K, Nagase T, Nomura N, Kikuchi H, Masuho Y, Yamashita R, Nakai K, Yada T, Nakamura Y, Ohara O, Isogai T, Sugano S: Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs. Nat Genet. 2004 Jan;36(1):40-5. doi: 10.1038/ng1285. Epub 2003 Dec 21.
Pubmed: 14702039
Khananshvili D: The SLC8 gene family of sodium-calcium exchangers (NCX) - structure, function, and regulation in health and disease. Mol Aspects Med. 2013 Apr-Jun;34(2-3):220-35. doi: 10.1016/j.mam.2012.07.003.
Pubmed: 23506867
Baughman JM, Perocchi F, Girgis HS, Plovanich M, Belcher-Timme CA, Sancak Y, Bao XR, Strittmatter L, Goldberger O, Bogorad RL, Koteliansky V, Mootha VK: Integrative genomics identifies MCU as an essential component of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. Nature. 2011 Jun 19;476(7360):341-5. doi: 10.1038/nature10234.
Pubmed: 21685886
Chaudhuri D, Sancak Y, Mootha VK, Clapham DE: MCU encodes the pore conducting mitochondrial calcium currents. Elife. 2013 Jun 4;2:e00704. doi: 10.7554/eLife.00704.
Pubmed: 23755363
Hoffman NE, Chandramoorthy HC, Shanmughapriya S, Zhang XQ, Vallem S, Doonan PJ, Malliankaraman K, Guo S, Rajan S, Elrod JW, Koch WJ, Cheung JY, Madesh M: SLC25A23 augments mitochondrial Ca(2)(+) uptake, interacts with MCU, and induces oxidative stress-mediated cell death. Mol Biol Cell. 2014 Mar;25(6):936-47. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E13-08-0502. Epub 2014 Jan 15.
Pubmed: 24430870
Gantz I, Munzert G, Tashiro T, Schaffer M, Wang L, DelValle J, Yamada T: Molecular cloning of the human histamine H2 receptor. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1991 Aug 15;178(3):1386-92. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(91)91047-g.
Pubmed: 1714721
Nishi T, Koike T, Oka T, Maeda M, Futai M: Identification of the promoter region of the human histamine H2-receptor gene. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1995 May 16;210(2):616-23. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1995.1703.
Pubmed: 7755641
Murakami H, Sun-Wada GH, Matsumoto M, Nishi T, Wada Y, Futai M: Human histamine H2 receptor gene: multiple transcription initiation and tissue-specific expression. FEBS Lett. 1999 May 28;451(3):327-31. doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(99)00618-3.
Pubmed: 10371214
Hayward BE, Moran V, Strain L, Bonthron DT: Bidirectional imprinting of a single gene: GNAS1 encodes maternally, paternally, and biallelically derived proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Dec 22;95(26):15475-80. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.26.15475.
Pubmed: 9860993
Hayward BE, Bonthron DT: An imprinted antisense transcript at the human GNAS1 locus. Hum Mol Genet. 2000 Mar 22;9(5):835-41. doi: 10.1093/hmg/9.5.835.
Pubmed: 10749992
Weiss U, Ischia R, Eder S, Lovisetti-Scamihorn P, Bauer R, Fischer-Colbrie R: Neuroendocrine secretory protein 55 (NESP55): alternative splicing onto transcripts of the GNAS gene and posttranslational processing of a maternally expressed protein. Neuroendocrinology. 2000 Mar;71(3):177-86. doi: 10.1159/000054535.
Pubmed: 10729789
Santos-Cortez RL, Lee K, Giese AP, Ansar M, Amin-Ud-Din M, Rehn K, Wang X, Aziz A, Chiu I, Hussain Ali R, Smith JD, Shendure J, Bamshad M, Nickerson DA, Ahmed ZM, Ahmad W, Riazuddin S, Leal SM: Adenylate cyclase 1 (ADCY1) mutations cause recessive hearing impairment in humans and defects in hair cell function and hearing in zebrafish. Hum Mol Genet. 2014 Jun 15;23(12):3289-98. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddu042. Epub 2014 Jan 29.
Pubmed: 24482543
Hillier LW, Fulton RS, Fulton LA, Graves TA, Pepin KH, Wagner-McPherson C, Layman D, Maas J, Jaeger S, Walker R, Wylie K, Sekhon M, Becker MC, O'Laughlin MD, Schaller ME, Fewell GA, Delehaunty KD, Miner TL, Nash WE, Cordes M, Du H, Sun H, Edwards J, Bradshaw-Cordum H, Ali J, Andrews S, Isak A, Vanbrunt A, Nguyen C, Du F, Lamar B, Courtney L, Kalicki J, Ozersky P, Bielicki L, Scott K, Holmes A, Harkins R, Harris A, Strong CM, Hou S, Tomlinson C, Dauphin-Kohlberg S, Kozlowicz-Reilly A, Leonard S, Rohlfing T, Rock SM, Tin-Wollam AM, Abbott A, Minx P, Maupin R, Strowmatt C, Latreille P, Miller N, Johnson D, Murray J, Woessner JP, Wendl MC, Yang SP, Schultz BR, Wallis JW, Spieth J, Bieri TA, Nelson JO, Berkowicz N, Wohldmann PE, Cook LL, Hickenbotham MT, Eldred J, Williams D, Bedell JA, Mardis ER, Clifton SW, Chissoe SL, Marra MA, Raymond C, Haugen E, Gillett W, Zhou Y, James R, Phelps K, Iadanoto S, Bubb K, Simms E, Levy R, Clendenning J, Kaul R, Kent WJ, Furey TS, Baertsch RA, Brent MR, Keibler E, Flicek P, Bork P, Suyama M, Bailey JA, Portnoy ME, Torrents D, Chinwalla AT, Gish WR, Eddy SR, McPherson JD, Olson MV, Eichler EE, Green ED, Waterston RH, Wilson RK: The DNA sequence of human chromosome 7. Nature. 2003 Jul 10;424(6945):157-64. doi: 10.1038/nature01782.
Pubmed: 12853948
Scherer SW, Cheung J, MacDonald JR, Osborne LR, Nakabayashi K, Herbrick JA, Carson AR, Parker-Katiraee L, Skaug J, Khaja R, Zhang J, Hudek AK, Li M, Haddad M, Duggan GE, Fernandez BA, Kanematsu E, Gentles S, Christopoulos CC, Choufani S, Kwasnicka D, Zheng XH, Lai Z, Nusskern D, Zhang Q, Gu Z, Lu F, Zeesman S, Nowaczyk MJ, Teshima I, Chitayat D, Shuman C, Weksberg R, Zackai EH, Grebe TA, Cox SR, Kirkpatrick SJ, Rahman N, Friedman JM, Heng HH, Pelicci PG, Lo-Coco F, Belloni E, Shaffer LG, Pober B, Morton CC, Gusella JF, Bruns GA, Korf BR, Quade BJ, Ligon AH, Ferguson H, Higgins AW, Leach NT, Herrick SR, Lemyre E, Farra CG, Kim HG, Summers AM, Gripp KW, Roberts W, Szatmari P, Winsor EJ, Grzeschik KH, Teebi A, Minassian BA, Kere J, Armengol L, Pujana MA, Estivill X, Wilson MD, Koop BF, Tosi S, Moore GE, Boright AP, Zlotorynski E, Kerem B, Kroisel PM, Petek E, Oscier DG, Mould SJ, Dohner H, Dohner K, Rommens JM, Vincent JB, Venter JC, Li PW, Mural RJ, Adams MD, Tsui LC: Human chromosome 7: DNA sequence and biology. Science. 2003 May 2;300(5620):767-72. doi: 10.1126/science.1083423. Epub 2003 Apr 10.
Pubmed: 12690205
Schmutz J, Martin J, Terry A, Couronne O, Grimwood J, Lowry S, Gordon LA, Scott D, Xie G, Huang W, Hellsten U, Tran-Gyamfi M, She X, Prabhakar S, Aerts A, Altherr M, Bajorek E, Black S, Branscomb E, Caoile C, Challacombe JF, Chan YM, Denys M, Detter JC, Escobar J, Flowers D, Fotopulos D, Glavina T, Gomez M, Gonzales E, Goodstein D, Grigoriev I, Groza M, Hammon N, Hawkins T, Haydu L, Israni S, Jett J, Kadner K, Kimball H, Kobayashi A, Lopez F, Lou Y, Martinez D, Medina C, Morgan J, Nandkeshwar R, Noonan JP, Pitluck S, Pollard M, Predki P, Priest J, Ramirez L, Retterer J, Rodriguez A, Rogers S, Salamov A, Salazar A, Thayer N, Tice H, Tsai M, Ustaszewska A, Vo N, Wheeler J, Wu K, Yang J, Dickson M, Cheng JF, Eichler EE, Olsen A, Pennacchio LA, Rokhsar DS, Richardson P, Lucas SM, Myers RM, Rubin EM: The DNA sequence and comparative analysis of human chromosome 5. Nature. 2004 Sep 16;431(7006):268-74. doi: 10.1038/nature02919.
Pubmed: 15372022
Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, Shenmen CM, Grouse LH, Schuler G, Klein SL, Old S, Rasooly R, Good P, Guyer M, Peck AM, Derge JG, Lipman D, Collins FS, Jang W, Sherry S, Feolo M, Misquitta L, Lee E, Rotmistrovsky K, Greenhut SF, Schaefer CF, Buetow K, Bonner TI, Haussler D, Kent J, Kiekhaus M, Furey T, Brent M, Prange C, Schreiber K, Shapiro N, Bhat NK, Hopkins RF, Hsie F, Driscoll T, Soares MB, Casavant TL, Scheetz TE, Brown-stein MJ, Usdin TB, Toshiyuki S, Carninci P, Piao Y, Dudekula DB, Ko MS, Kawakami K, Suzuki Y, Sugano S, Gruber CE, Smith MR, Simmons B, Moore T, Waterman R, Johnson SL, Ruan Y, Wei CL, Mathavan S, Gunaratne PH, Wu J, Garcia AM, Hulyk SW, Fuh E, Yuan Y, Sneed A, Kowis C, Hodgson A, Muzny DM, McPherson J, Gibbs RA, Fahey J, Helton E, Ketteman M, Madan A, Rodrigues S, Sanchez A, Whiting M, Madari A, Young AC, Wetherby KD, Granite SJ, Kwong PN, Brinkley CP, Pearson RL, Bouffard GG, Blakesly RW, Green ED, Dickson MC, Rodriguez AC, Grimwood J, Schmutz J, Myers RM, Butterfield YS, Griffith M, Griffith OL, Krzywinski MI, Liao N, Morin R, Palmquist D, Petrescu AS, Skalska U, Smailus DE, Stott JM, Schnerch A, Schein JE, Jones SJ, Holt RA, Baross A, Marra MA, Clifton S, Makowski KA, Bosak S, Malek J: The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC). Genome Res. 2004 Oct;14(10B):2121-7. doi: 10.1101/gr.2596504.
Pubmed: 15489334
Grarup N, Moltke I, Andersen MK, Dalby M, Vitting-Seerup K, Kern T, Mahendran Y, Jorsboe E, Larsen CVL, Dahl-Petersen IK, Gilly A, Suveges D, Dedoussis G, Zeggini E, Pedersen O, Andersson R, Bjerregaard P, Jorgensen ME, Albrechtsen A, Hansen T: Loss-of-function variants in ADCY3 increase risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Nat Genet. 2018 Feb;50(2):172-174. doi: 10.1038/s41588-017-0022-7. Epub 2018 Jan 8.
Pubmed: 29311636
Yang B, He B, Abdel-Halim SM, Tibell A, Brendel MD, Bretzel RG, Efendic S, Hillert J: Molecular cloning of a full-length cDNA for human type 3 adenylyl cyclase and its expression in human islets. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1999 Jan 27;254(3):548-51. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1998.9983.
Pubmed: 9920776
Hodson DJ, Mitchell RK, Marselli L, Pullen TJ, Gimeno Brias S, Semplici F, Everett KL, Cooper DM, Bugliani M, Marchetti P, Lavallard V, Bosco D, Piemonti L, Johnson PR, Hughes SJ, Li D, Li WH, Shapiro AM, Rutter GA: ADCY5 couples glucose to insulin secretion in human islets. Diabetes. 2014 Sep;63(9):3009-21. doi: 10.2337/db13-1607. Epub 2014 Apr 16.
Pubmed: 24740569
Chen YZ, Friedman JR, Chen DH, Chan GC, Bloss CS, Hisama FM, Topol SE, Carson AR, Pham PH, Bonkowski ES, Scott ER, Lee JK, Zhang G, Oliveira G, Xu J, Scott-Van Zeeland AA, Chen Q, Levy S, Topol EJ, Storm D, Swanson PD, Bird TD, Schork NJ, Raskind WH, Torkamani A: Gain-of-function ADCY5 mutations in familial dyskinesia with facial myokymia. Ann Neurol. 2014 Apr;75(4):542-9. doi: 10.1002/ana.24119. Epub 2014 Mar 13.
Pubmed: 24700542
Highlighted elements will appear in red.
Highlight Compounds
Highlight Proteins
Enter relative concentration values (without units). Elements will be highlighted in a color gradient where red = lowest concentration and green = highest concentration. For the best results, view the pathway in Black and White.
Visualize Compound Data
Visualize Protein Data
Downloads
Settings