Structure and activation mechanism of mammalian prestin
EMSL Project ID
51255
Abstract
The mammalian cochlear hair cells are the sensory receptors for the auditory system. They consist of one row of inner hair cells (IHCs) and three rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) with stereocilia on top. Both types of hair cells can convert the mechanical stimuli by the stereocilia deflection into electrical signals. While only inner hair cells transduce the sound signal further to central auditory system, the outer hair cells mainly function as acoustical amplifiers. The receptor potential in OHCs triggers the cell length change, carried out the prestin molecules on the lateral membrane of OHCs. Prestin is a member of SLC26 family of anion transporters containing 12 transmembrane helices. Despite the comprehensive biophysical studies of prestin, no prestin structures are available, which limits our understanding of how it functions. The objective of this project is to elucidate the structure of prestin in the near-native lipid environment by single particle cryoEM. Our work will provide insight into the architecture and activation mechanism of prestin and increase our understanding of how OHCs work as the native sound amplifier.
Project Details
Start Date
2020-01-15
End Date
2021-03-17
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members