Mechanotransduction events at the physiological site of touch detection

  1. Luke H Ziolkowski
  2. Elena O Gracheva  Is a corresponding author
  3. Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev  Is a corresponding author
  1. Yale University, United States

Abstract

Afferents of peripheral mechanoreceptors innervate the skin of vertebrates, where they detect physical touch via mechanically gated ion channels (mechanotransducers). While the afferent terminal is generally understood to be the primary site of mechanotransduction, the functional properties of mechanically activated (MA) ionic current generated by mechanotransducers at this location remain obscure. Until now, direct evidence of MA current and mechanically induced action potentials in the mechanoreceptor terminal has not been obtained. Here, we report patch-clamp recordings from the afferent terminal innervating Grandry (Meissner) corpuscles in the bill skin of a tactile specialist duck. We show that mechanical stimulation evokes MA current in the afferent with fast kinetics of activation and inactivation during the dynamic phases of the mechanical stimulus. These responses trigger rapidly adapting firing in the afferent detected at the terminal and in the afferent fiber outside of the corpuscle. Our findings elucidate the initial electrogenic events of touch detection in the mechanoreceptor nerve terminal.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file; Source Data files have been provided for Figures 1 and 2.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Luke H Ziolkowski

    Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3420-6782
  2. Elena O Gracheva

    Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
    For correspondence
    elena.gracheva@yale.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0846-3427
  3. Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev

    Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
    For correspondence
    slav.bagriantsev@yale.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6661-3403

Funding

National Science Foundation (1923127)

  • Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev

National Science Foundation (2114084)

  • Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev

National Science Foundation (1754286)

  • Elena O Gracheva

National Institutes of Health (R01NS097547)

  • Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev

National Institutes of Health (R01NS126277)

  • Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Experiments with duck embryos (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) were approved by and performed in accordance with guidelines of the Institutional Animal Case and Use Committee of Yale University, protocol 11526.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Teresa Giraldez, University of La Laguna, Spain

Publication history

  1. Received: October 13, 2022
  2. Preprint posted: October 24, 2022 (view preprint)
  3. Accepted: December 21, 2022
  4. Accepted Manuscript published: January 6, 2023 (version 1)
  5. Version of Record published: January 11, 2023 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2023, Ziolkowski et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Luke H Ziolkowski
  2. Elena O Gracheva
  3. Sviatoslav N Bagriantsev
(2023)
Mechanotransduction events at the physiological site of touch detection
eLife 12:e84179.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84179

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