5 ms·
Mystery. According to the article and the paper we now have a clear understanding of how it works - the proteins in worms (which are similar to humans in their
by ncr100 4y ago
Mystery.
According to the article and the paper we now have a clear understanding of how it works - the proteins in worms (which are similar to humans in their hearing structures) and their function.
So, unless I misread it, we absolutely know how sound > neural impulse works.
More:
> The initial step in the sensory transduction pathway underpinning hearing and balance in mammals involves the conversion of force into the gating of a mechanosensory transduction channel1. Despite the profound socioeconomic impacts of hearing disorders and the fundamental biological significance of understanding mechanosensory transduction, the composition, structure and mechanism of the mechanosensory transduction complex have remained poorly characterized. Here we report the single-particle cryo-electron microscopy structure of the native transmembrane channel-like protein 1 (TMC-1) mechanosensory transduction complex isolated from Caenorhabditis elegans. The two-fold symmetric complex is composed of two copies each of the pore-forming TMC-1 subunit, the calcium-binding protein CALM-1 and the transmembrane inner ear protein TMIE. CALM-1 makes extensive contacts with the cytoplasmic face of the TMC-1 subunits, whereas the single-pass TMIE subunits reside on the periphery of the complex, poised like the handles of an accordion. A subset of complexes additionally includes a single arrestin-like protein, arrestin domain protein (ARRD-6), bound to a CALM-1 subunit. Single-particle reconstructions and molecular dynamics simulations show how the mechanosensory transduction complex deforms the membrane bilayer and suggest crucial roles for lipid–protein interactions in the mechanism by which mechanical force is transduced to ion channel gating.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05314-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05314-8
- swayvil 4y ago>So, unless I misread it, we absolutely know how sound > neural impulse works Am I being unclear? I asked : did we always consider it to be a mystery? Or did we have a different model before? (Which just recently got replaced by this new, better, model)
- thelittleone 4y agoWow. For some reason I had always assumed worms cannot hear.
- vanderZwan 4y agoI never thought about it before but if someone had asked me I probably would have guessed the same - humans are probably biased to assume hearing must involve ears. OTOH, detection of mechanical vibrations seems like the kind of adaptation to evolve early. Hearing is in some sense just a refinement of that, so at the very least the groundwork for it must be old.
- thelittleone 4y agoRemarkable nature. Whenever my daily problems get on top of me, I like to spend a moment to think about the absurd but beautiful reality that we creatures exist and that we're hurtling through space. And now... that worms can hear... in a way similar enough to humans.
- myself248 4y agoSmell (chemical environment) was probably the "original" sense, followed quickly by touch (slow macro pressure) and hearing (fast micro pressure). Pretty much every animal has those, even if they lack the brains to do much sophisticated with them. Sight came way, way, way, way, way, way, way later. Encoding language in sounds is an even more recent innovation, in the grand scheme. This may also be why we have such trouble assigning words to smells, and you can't write a poem to replace a hug, for instance. They're processed by entirely different, and far more primal, parts of the brain than language.