Hearing acrobatics
E-Mail The sense of hearing is, quite literally, a molecular tightrope act. Turns out, it involves acrobatics as well. In a paper published in Nature Communications on Feb 8, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital show that a dynamic and delicate connection between two pairs of diminutive protein filaments plays a central role in in hearing. The tension held by these filaments, together called a tip link, is essential for the activation of sensory cells in the inner ear. The team's analyses reveal that the filaments, which are joined end-to-end, work together ...
Source: eurekalert.org