IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v474y2011i7351d10.1038_nature10073.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Forces between clustered stereocilia minimize friction in the ear on a subnanometre scale

Author

Listed:
  • Andrei S. Kozlov

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University)

  • Johannes Baumgart

    (Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden)

  • Thomas Risler

    (Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche
    UPMC Université Paris 06, UMR 168
    CNRS, UMR 168)

  • Corstiaen P. C. Versteegh

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University
    Experimental Zoology Group, Wageningen University)

  • A. J. Hudspeth

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University)

Abstract

How inner-ear stereocilia pull together Hearing is initiated by the movement of tiny bundles of cilia located at the top of hair cells inside the ear. Despite being surrounded by the viscous fluid that bathes the inner ear, these stereocilia remain sensitive to movements of atomic dimension. The mechanism that makes this possible by eliminating most of the viscous drag in the liquid between the stereocilia has now been demonstrated. Analysis of the balance of forces in bullfrog hair cell stereocilia on a subnanometre scale shows that, at the frequencies used in hearing, most stereocilia inside the hair bundle are shielded from the external liquid and move virtually as one.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrei S. Kozlov & Johannes Baumgart & Thomas Risler & Corstiaen P. C. Versteegh & A. J. Hudspeth, 2011. "Forces between clustered stereocilia minimize friction in the ear on a subnanometre scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 474(7351), pages 376-379, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:474:y:2011:i:7351:d:10.1038_nature10073
    DOI: 10.1038/nature10073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10073
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature10073?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:474:y:2011:i:7351:d:10.1038_nature10073. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.