Dataset Information

Muscle-like nicotinic receptor accessory molecules in sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

ABSTRACT: Nothing is known about the regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in hair cells of the inner ear. MuSK, rapsyn and RIC-3 are accessory molecules associated with muscle and brain nAChR function. We demonstrate that these accessory molecules are expressed in the inner ear raising the possibility of a muscle-like mechanism for clustering and assembly of nAChRs in hair cells. We focused our investigations on rapsyn and RIC-3. Rapsyn interacts with the cytoplasmic loop of nAChR alpha9 subunits but not nAChR alpha10 subunits. Although rapsyn and RIC-3 increase nAChR alpha9 expression, rapsyn plays a greater role in receptor clustering while RIC-3 is important for acetylcholine-induced calcium responses. Our data suggest that RIC-3 facilitates receptor function, while rapsyn enhances receptor clustering at the cell surface.

SUBMITTER: Osman AA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2480618 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Muscle-like nicotinic receptor accessory molecules in sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

Osman Abdullah A AA Schrader Angela D AD Hawkes Aubrey J AJ Akil Omar O Bergeron Adam A Lustig Lawrence R LR Simmons Dwayne D DD

Molecular and cellular neurosciences 20080304 2

Nothing is known about the regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in hair cells of the inner ear. MuSK, rapsyn and RIC-3 are accessory molecules associated with muscle and brain nAChR function. We demonstrate that these accessory molecules are expressed in the inner ear raising the possibility of a muscle-like mechanism for clustering and assembly of nAChRs in hair cells. We focused our investigations on rapsyn and RIC-3. Rapsyn interacts with the cytoplasmic loop of nAChR alph ...[more]

PMID: 18420419

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Project description:The mammalian inner ear (IE) subserves auditory and vestibular sensations via highly specialized cells and proteins. Sensory receptor hair cells (HCs) are necessary for transducing mechanical inputs and stimulating sensory neurons by using a host of known and as yet unknown protein machinery. To understand the protein composition of these unique postmitotic cells, in which irreversible protein degradation or damage can lead to impaired hearing and balance, we analyzed IE samples by tandem mass spectrometry to generate an unbiased, shotgun-proteomics view of protein identities and abundances. By using Pou4f3/eGFP-transgenic mice in which HCs express GFP driven by Pou4f3, we FACS purified a population of HCs to analyze and compare the HC proteome with other IE subproteomes from sensory epithelia and whole IE. We show that the mammalian HC proteome comprises hundreds of uniquely or highly expressed proteins. Our global proteomic analysis of purified HCs extends the existing HC transcriptome, revealing previously undetected gene products and isoform-specific protein expression. Comparison of our proteomic data with mouse and human databases of genetic auditory/vestibular impairments confirms the critical role of the HC proteome for normal IE function, providing a cell-specific pool of candidates for novel, important HC genes. Several proteins identified exclusively in HCs by proteomics and verified by immunohistochemistry map to human genetic deafness loci, potentially representing new deafness genes. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:Hearing and balance rely on specialized sensory hair cells (HCs) in the inner ear (IE) to convey information about sound, acceleration, and orientation to the brain. Genetically and environmentally induced perturbations to HC proteins can result in deafness and severe imbalance. We used transgenic mice with GFP-expressing HCs, coupled with FACS sorting and tandem mass spectrometry, to define the most complete HC and IE proteome to date. We show that hundreds of proteins are uniquely identified or enriched in HCs, extending previous gene expression analyses to reveal novel HC proteins and isoforms. Importantly, deafness-linked proteins were significantly enriched in HCs, suggesting that this in-depth proteomic analysis of IE sensory cells may hold potential for deafness gene discovery.

Dataset Information

Muscle-like nicotinic receptor accessory molecules in sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

Publications

Muscle-like nicotinic receptor accessory molecules in sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

Similar Datasets

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