"Under the skin: Decoding the molecular basis of touch sensation”
Event details
| Date | 07.04.2016 |
| Hour | 13:00 › 14:30 |
| Speaker | Dr Paul Heppenstall EMBL Monterotondo, Italy |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
The sense of touch and pain is fundamentally important for life. However, how force is sensed at the molecular level is largely unknown. At its most fundamental level, touch sensation requires the translation of mechanical energy into mechanosensitive ion channel opening, thereby generating electrochemical signals. Here I describe our work on understanding how the cytoskeleton, in particular microtubules, influences touch sensation. Focusing on conditional knockout mice for the α-tubulin acetyltransferase Atat1, I will show how these mice display profound deficits in their ability to detect mechanical stimuli, and are largely insensitive to mechanical touch and pain. I will explore the mechanistic basis of this phenotype, showing how acetylated tubulin contributes to the stiffness of sensory neurons. This simple physical property reduces the ability of neurons to transduce mechanical stimuli, which in turn has fundamental consequences for how an organism detects its environment.
The sense of touch and pain is fundamentally important for life. However, how force is sensed at the molecular level is largely unknown. At its most fundamental level, touch sensation requires the translation of mechanical energy into mechanosensitive ion channel opening, thereby generating electrochemical signals. Here I describe our work on understanding how the cytoskeleton, in particular microtubules, influences touch sensation. Focusing on conditional knockout mice for the α-tubulin acetyltransferase Atat1, I will show how these mice display profound deficits in their ability to detect mechanical stimuli, and are largely insensitive to mechanical touch and pain. I will explore the mechanistic basis of this phenotype, showing how acetylated tubulin contributes to the stiffness of sensory neurons. This simple physical property reduces the ability of neurons to transduce mechanical stimuli, which in turn has fundamental consequences for how an organism detects its environment.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Kai Johnsson
Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
Institute of Bioengineering
NCCR in Chemical Biology