Slow motility in hair cells of the frog amphibian papilla: myosin light chain-mediated shape change.

ABSTRACT: Using video, fluorescence and confocal microscopy, quantitative analysis and modeling, we investigated intracellular processes mediating the calcium/calmodulin (Ca(2+)/CaM)-dependent slow motility in hair cells dissociated from the rostral region of amphibian papilla, one of the two auditory organs in frogs. The time course of shape changes in these hair cells during the period of pretreatment with several specific inhibitors, as well as their response to the calcium ionophore, ionomycin, were recorded and compared. These cells respond to ionomycin with a tri-phasic shape change: an initial phase of iso-volumetric length decrease; a period of concurrent shortening and swelling; and the final phase of increase in both length and volume. We found that both the myosin light chain kinase inhib

SUBMITTER: Farahbakhsh NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2516351 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature