A Model for Link Pruning to Establish Correctly Polarized and Oriented Tip Links in Hair Bundles.

ABSTRACT: Tip links are thought to gate the mechanically sensitive transduction channels of hair cells, but how they form during development and regeneration remains mysterious. In particular, it is unclear how tip links are strung between stereocilia so that they are oriented parallel to a single axis; why their polarity is uniform despite their constituent molecules' intrinsic asymmetry; and why only a single tip link is present at each tip-link position. We present here a series of simple rules that reasonably explain why these phenomena occur. In particular, our model relies on each of the two ends of the tip link having distinct Ca²⁺-dependent stability and being connected to different motor complexes. A simulation employing these rules allowed us to explore the parameter space for t

SUBMITTER: Tompkins N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5647544 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature