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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

In Vivo Calcium Imaging of Lateral-line Hair Cells in Larval Zebrafish
Published on: November 28, 2018
A chemical-genetic strategy implicates myosin-1c in adaptation by hair cells
Jeffrey R Holt1, Susan K H Gillespie, D William Provance
1Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Abstract:
Myosin-1c (also known as myosin-Ibeta) has been proposed to mediate the slow component of adaptation by hair cells, the sensory cells of the inner ear. To test this hypothesis, we mutated tyrosine-61 of myosin-1c to glycine, conferring susceptibility to inhibition by N(6)-modified ADP analogs. We expressed the mutant myosin-1c in utricular hair cells of transgenic mice, delivered an ADP analog through a whole-cell recording pipette, and found that the analog rapidly blocked adaptation to positive and negative deflections in transgenic cells but not in wild-type cells. The speed and specificity of inhibition suggests that myosin-1c participates in adaptation in hair cells.
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