Figure 1

Anatomical details of inner ear, cochlea and organ of Corti, the sense organ of mammalian hearing. The cochlea, a fluid-filled tripartite channel, is located in the inner ear (a). A hemisected cochlea provides a radial view of the organ of Corti, a cellular matrix showing the location of hair cells. IHC: inner hair cell OHC: outer hair cell (b). The input organelles of hair cells, the stereocilia, are connected by different links, including tip-link proteins allowing movement as a unit. Deflection of the stereocilary bundle due to displacement between the top of the organ of Corti and the bottom of the tectorial membrane provides tension to the tip link, which, in turn, modulates the MET channel's open probability(c). The tip link is partially composed of cdh23, which is presumed to interact with the MET channel (d) either directly or indirectly. Images in (c) and (d) are modified from LeMasurier and Gillespie [33]. Myo1c: myosin 1c, CaM: calmodulin.