English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The sensation of balance and hearing is initiated by the conversion of the movement of stereocilia in hair cells of the inner ear into electrical signals in nerve fibers leading to the brain. Driven by pressure waves that are generated by sound, head movement, or gravity, this transformation of energy occurs in structures of exceptional delicacy and intricacy, where movements of atomic dimensions result in perception (1). Not surprisingly, these sensory modalities may be easily and irreversibly damaged by, for example, chemical agents, noise, or head trauma. Because sensory transduction requires the performance of single molecules, it is also sensitive to mutation, and there is now a growing list of genetic loci for deafness that have been successfully traced to genes coding for membrane, regulatory, or structural proteins of the inner ear. In this issue of PNAS, Kharkovets et al. (2) report the expression pattern of a novel potassium channel, KCNQ4, in subtypes of hair cells and neurons of the auditory and vestibular systems. As mutations in the gene encoding KCNQ4 appear to cause one form of nonsyndromic dominant deafness, the results of this paper may lead to a refined molecular understanding of transduction, of the central processing of signals generated by hair cells, and of treatment of deafness and balance disorders. Although the mechanism of mechanotransduction is largely the same throughout the inner ear, hair cells are used in remarkably diverse ways (1). The apex of the hair cell features a bundle of stereocilia, which, when moved in a preferred direction, causes the opening of ion channels in the tips of the stereocilia and the consequent depolarization of the hair cell. A single row of inner hair cells in the organ of Corti, a structure that runs along the middle of the cochlea (Fig. 1), is arranged to transduce …

Mutant ion channel in cochlear hair cells causes deafness