Piccolino is required for ribbon architecture at cochlear inner hair cell synapses and for hearing.

ABSTRACT: Cochlear inner hair cells (IHCs) form specialized ribbon synapses with spiral ganglion neurons that tirelessly transmit sound information at high rates over long time periods with extreme temporal precision. This functional specialization is essential for sound encoding and is attributed to a distinct molecular machinery with unique players or splice variants compared to conventional neuronal synapses. Among these is the active zone (AZ) scaffold protein piccolo/aczonin, which is represented by its short splice variant piccolino at cochlear and retinal ribbon synapses. While the function of piccolo at synapses of the central nervous system has been intensively investigated, the role of piccolino at IHC synapses remains unclear. In this study, we characterize the structure and function of I

SUBMITTER: Michanski S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10481675 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature