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What differentiates chemokines from chemoattractants? They both are grouped by their chemotaxic function, but what features separate them.

What are examples of other chemoattractants that are not chemokines? Or examples that are not even proteins at all?

  • What research have you done on this subject? Simply reading the respective Wikipedia pages should tell you the difference (hint: read about chemotaxis and chemokine). – MattDMo Dec 13 '16 at 14:54
  • See also: http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/8139/what-is-the-distinction-between-chemokines-cytokines-interferons-and-interleuk – MattDMo Dec 13 '16 at 14:54
  • @MattDMo I am not asking about chemotaxis vs chemokines or chemokines vs cytokines. Strictly the difference between two groups of chemotaxia inducing molecules. The link provided does not help answer this question. I will reword my question to make this more clear. –  Dec 13 '16 at 15:08
  • Did you read both of the suggested Wikipedia articles entirely? The chemotaxis article includes information on chemoattractants, as it doesn't have its own page. I know the question I linked doesn't completely address your question, which is why I didn't mark it as a duplicate. It was merely intended to provide some additional information. – MattDMo Dec 13 '16 at 15:30
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    @MattDMo Yes, the wikipedia article on chemtaxis mentioned chemokines once as a subgroup of chemoattractants, however there was no explanation on why this was. The article on chemokines also did not offer an explanation on my question. –  Dec 13 '16 at 15:33
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    And there is your answer. Chemoattractant is a general term to describe all molecules/atoms/ions, organic and inorganic, that induce cell motility. Chemokines are one type of chemoattractant, there are a number of others as well. – MattDMo Dec 13 '16 at 15:39
  • @MattDMo Ok thank you for helping me find this answer. I will need to improve my questions in the future. I was looking for what separates chemokines out from chemoattractants, which appears to be their four cysteine residues and approximate size of 8-10 kilodaltons. My confusion was from my professor's definition of chemokines as any protein that will induce chemotaxis. –  Dec 13 '16 at 19:20

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