-
Article
Open AccessSensory Schwann cells set perceptual thresholds for touch and selectively regulate mechanical nociception
Previous work identified nociceptive Schwann cells that can initiate pain. Consistent with the existence of inherently mechanosensitive sensory Schwann cells, we found that in mice, the mechanosensory function...
-
Article
Open AccessRole of TMEM100 in mechanically insensitive nociceptor un-silencing
Mechanically silent nociceptors are sensory afferents that are insensitive to noxious mechanical stimuli under normal conditions but become sensitized to such stimuli during inflammation. Using RNA-sequencing ...
-
Article
SPFH protein cage — one ring to rule them all
-
Chapter
The Somatosensory World of the African Naked Mole-Rat
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is famous for its longevity and unusual physiology. This eusocial species that lives in highly ordered and hierarchical colonies with a single breeding queen, also disco...
-
Chapter
African Naked Mole-Rats Demonstrate Extreme Tolerance to Hypoxia and Hypercapnia
Naked mole-rats are extremely tolerant to low concentrations of oxygen (hypoxia) and high concentrations of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia), which is consistent with the environment that they inhabit. Naked mole-...
-
Chapter
A Sweet Story of Metabolic Innovation in the Naked Mole-Rat
The naked mole-rat’s (Heterocephalus glaber) social and subterranean lifestyle imposes several evolutionary pressures which have shaped its physiology. One example is low oxygen availability in a crowded burrow s...
-
Chapter
Hearing and Vocalizations in the Naked Mole-Rat
Since their discovery, naked mole-rats have been speaking to us. Early field studies noted their extensive , and scientists who are fortunate enough to spend time with these creatures in the laboratory settin...
-
Article
USH2A is a Meissner’s corpuscle protein necessary for normal vibration sensing in mice and humans
Fingertip mechanoreceptors comprise sensory neuron endings together with specialized skin cells that form the end-organ. Exquisitely sensitive, vibration-sensing neurons are associated with Meissner’s corpuscl...
-
Article
Open AccessIndependent evolution of pain insensitivity in African mole-rats: origins and mechanisms
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is famous for its longevity and unusual physiology. This eusocial species that lives in highly ordered and hierarchical colonies with a single breeding queen, also disco...
-
Article
Open AccessPublisher Correction: Lipidome determinants of maximal lifespan in mammals
A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.
-
Article
Open AccessVoltage gating of mechanosensitive PIEZO channels
Mechanosensitive PIEZO ion channels are evolutionarily conserved proteins whose presence is critical for normal physiology in multicellular organisms. Here we show that, in addition to mechanical stimuli, PIEZ...
-
Article
Open AccessCongenital deafness is associated with specific somatosensory deficits in adolescents
Hearing and touch represent two distinct sensory systems that both rely on the transformation of mechanical force into electrical signals. Here we used a battery of quantitative sensory tests to probe touch, t...
-
Article
Small-molecule inhibition of STOML3 oligomerization reverses pathological mechanical hypersensitivity
The authors developed small-molecule inhibitors of STOML3 oligomerization, a membrane protein that interacts with mechanosensitive ion channels, such as Piezo2. One of these molecules was effective in silencin...
-
Article
Open AccessLipidome determinants of maximal lifespan in mammals
Maximal lifespan of mammalian species, even if closely related, may differ more than 10-fold, however the nature of the mechanisms that determine this variability is unresolved. Here, we assess the relationshi...
-
Article
Open AccessFxyd2 regulates Aδ- and C-fiber mechanosensitivity and is required for the maintenance of neuropathic pain
Identification of the molecular mechanisms governing sensory neuron subtype excitability is a key requisite for the development of treatments for somatic sensory disorders. Here, we show that the Na,K-ATPase m...
-
Article
Open AccessA Probabilistic Model for Estimating the Depth and Threshold Temperature of C-fiber Nociceptors
The subjective experience of thermal pain follows the detection and encoding of noxious stimuli by primary afferent neurons called nociceptors. However, nociceptor morphology has been hard to access and the me...
-
Article
Open AccessPhotoswitchable fatty acids enable optical control of TRPV1
Fatty acids (FAs) are not only essential components of cellular energy storage and structure, but play crucial roles in signalling. Here we present a toolkit of photoswitchable FA analogues (FAAzos) that incor...
-
Article
PIEZO2 is required for mechanotransduction in human stem cell–derived touch receptors
The authors used human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells to derive sensory neurons that have biochemical and electrophysiological properties similar to touch receptors, including the abili...
-
Article
Open AccessSensory mechanotransduction at membrane-matrix interfaces
Sensory cells specialized to detect extremely small mechanical changes are common to the auditory and somatosensory systems. It is widely accepted that mechanosensitive channels form the core of the mechanoele...
-
Article
Piezo2 is the major transducer of mechanical forces for touch sensation in mice
Mice lacking the mechanically activated ion channel Piezo2 in both sensory neurons and Merkel cells are almost totally incapable of light-touch sensation while other somatosensory functions, such as mechanical...
