Lipid bilayer mediates ion-channel cooperativity in a model of hair-cell mechanotransduction.

ABSTRACT: Mechanoelectrical transduction in the inner ear is a biophysical process underlying the senses of hearing and balance. The key players involved in this process are mechanosensitive ion channels. They are located in the stereocilia of hair cells and opened by the tension in specialized molecular springs, the tip links, connecting adjacent stereocilia. When channels open, the tip links relax, reducing the hair-bundle stiffness. This gating compliance makes hair cells especially sensitive to small stimuli. The classical explanation for the gating compliance is that the conformational rearrangement of a single channel directly shortens the tip link. However, to reconcile theoretical models based on this mechanism with experimental data, an unrealistically large structural change of the channel

SUBMITTER: Gianoli F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5754792 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature