second messenger


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.
Compare first messenger.

Origin of second messenger

First recorded in 1960–65

Cultural definitions for second messenger

second messenger

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.)