Membrane Mechanosensors Responsible for Touch and other Senses

Abstract

For decades, we have understood that ion channels are the first responders of touch sensation and other mechanical senses—converting the mechanical energy delivered in by sound, or by a touch, or by the bend of a limb into neural signals. Research in my group and others has identified at least three classes of proteins that form these so-called mechano-electrical transduction (MeT) channels in mammals and invertebrates: DEG/ENaC sodium channels, TRP cation channels, and Piezo cation channels. We are working to increase knowledge of how MeT channels depend on the plasma membrane for function and the physics of force transfer. My talk will survey prior knowledge and discuss recent investigations combining the tools of genetic dissection with behavioral analysis and electrical recording from identified neurons to the biophysics of in vivo MeT channel activation using C. elegans nematodes as a tractable model.