RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Ionic Mechanism of Hearing
JF Science's STKE
JO Sci. STKE
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP tw10
OP tw10
DO 10.1126/stke.2001.88.tw10
VO 2001
IS 88
YR 2001
UL http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2001/88/tw10.abstract
AB The outer hair cells of the mammalian cochlea are specialized cells and function early on in the hearing process. Recently, prestin, the motor protein responsible for the electromotility of outer hair cells, has been identified and cloned. Oliver et al. found that the unusual voltage sensitivity of this protein is not intrinsic but depends on the presence of intracellular anions, such as bicarbonate and chloride, which behave like extrinsic voltage sensors. In binding to the motor protein, they trigger the structural rearrangements in the molecule that underlie outer hair cell electromotility. D. Oliver, D. Z. Z. He, N. Klöcker, J. Ludwig, U. Schulte, S. Waldegger, J. P. Ruppersberg, P. Dallos, B. Fakler, Intracellular anions as the voltage sensor of prestin, the outer hair cell motor protein. Science 292, 2340-2343 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]