ABSTRACT
When we focus on receptor controlled protein function, as mentioned, activity in the absence of agonists can be either basal or spontaneous/constitutive activity. The constitutive activity in mutated receptor/effector systems is most easily seen when receptors are overexpressed. Thus, the acronym CAM, standing for ‘constitutively active mutants’, has emerged. However, the three concepts ‘basal’, ‘spontaneous’, and ‘constitutive’ are often used interchangeably. For the modeler of reaction schemes, activity observed in functional studies can be either (1) basal/spontaneous/constitutive, or (2) agonist-induced activity.
