The actin cytoskeleton—a collection of actin filaments with their accessory and regulatory
proteins—is the primary force-generating machinery in the cell. It can produce pushing …

Sensory hair cells of the inner ear are exposed to continuous mechanical stress, causing
damage over time. The maintenance of hair cells is further challenged by damage from a …

The size of the nucleus varies among different cell types, species, and disease states, but
mechanisms of nuclear size regulation are poorly understood. We investigated nuclear …

Hearing loss (HL), or deafness in its most severe form, affects an estimated 28 and 22.5
million Americans and Europeans, respectively. The numbers are higher in regions such as …

Summary Myosin XVa (MyoXVa) and its cargo whirlin are implicated in deafness and
vestibular dysfunction and have been shown to localize at stereocilia tips and to be essential …

In the most accepted model for hair cell mechanotransduction, a cluster of myosin motors
located at the stereocilia upper tip-link density (UTLD) keeps the tip-link under tension at …

The mammalian cochlea is a remarkable sensory organ, capable of perceiving sound over a
range of 1012 in pressure, and discriminating both infrasonic and ultrasonic frequencies in …

The identification of mutations underlying monogenic, early-onset forms of deafness in
humans has provided unprecedented insight into the molecular mechanisms of hearing in …

The mechanotransducer channels of auditory hair cells are gated by tip-links, oblique
filaments that interconnect the stereocilia of the hair bundle. Tip-links stretch from the tips of …

Sensory neurons use specialized apical processes to perceive external stimuli and monitor
internal body conditions. The apical apparatus can include cilia, microvilli, or both, and is …