User:RotogenRay/Receptors
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Receptors and their associated ligands, agonists, antagonists, second messengers, etc. play an important role in facilitating all organisms' ability to respond to the environment. Likewise, categorization and contectualization of receptor families is tantamount to elucidate understanding of their function in the organisim. However, the challenge with categorization and current efforts to that end is determining a common denominator, or criteria for classification. With such a wide variety of known receptors and associated genetics, and many still unknown and currently researched cellular sensory and signal transduction mechanisms, and given the fact that different parts of the body tend to use certain receptor systems in different ways, there is a disconnect between the observation of receptor structure, location-specific function, and the larger effect on the whole organism to the presence of metabolic response modifiers, an excess or defficiet of ligands, receptor agonists, antagonists, cofactors and second messengers, etc.