Jeong Han Lee, Maria C Perez-Flores, Seojin Park, Hyo Jeong Kim, Yingying Chen, Mincheol Kang, Jennifer Kersigo, Jinsil Choi, Phung N Thai, Ryan L Woltz, Dolores Columba Perez-Flores, Guy Perkins, Choong-Ryoul Sihn, Pauline Trinh, Xiao-Dong Zhang, Padmini Sirish, Yao Dong, Wayne Wei Feng, Isaac N Pessah, Rose E Dixon, Bernd Sokolowski, Bernd Fritzsch, Nipavan Chiamvimonvat, Ebenezer N Yamoah
The inner ear is the hub where hair cells (HCs) transduce sound, gravity, and head acceleration stimuli to the brain. Hearing and balance rely on mechanosensation, the fastest sensory signals transmitted to the brain. The mechanoelectrical transducer (MET) channel is the entryway for the sound-balance-brain interface, but the channel-complex composition is not entirely known. Here, we report that the mouse utilizes Piezo1 (Pz1) and Piezo2 (Pz2) isoforms as MET-complex components. The Pz channels, expressed in HC stereocilia, and cell lines are co-localized and co-assembled with MET complex partners...
January 16, 2024: Nature Communications