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A stomatin-like protein necessary for mechanosensation in C. elegans

Nature volume 378, pages 292–295 (1995)Cite this article

Abstract

The mec-2 gene is required for the function of a set of six touch receptor neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans; mec-2 mutants, which are touch-insensitive, have touch cells that appear morphologically normal1,2. Gene interaction studies suggest that mec-2 positively regulates the activity of the putative mechano-sensory transduction channel (ref. 3 and the present paper), comprised in part of proteins encoded by the two degenerin genes mec-4 and mec-10 (refs 3–5). The central region of the mec-2 protein (MEC-2) is very similar to stomatin, an integral membrane protein (band 7.2b) in human red blood cells that is thought to regulate cation conductance6. MEC-2-LacZ fusions are distributed along the touch receptor axons. This axonal distribution, which is mediated by the mec-2-specific amino terminus, is disrupted by mutations in mec-12, an α-tubulin gene needed for touch cell function. Our results indicate that MEC-2 links the mechanosensory channel and the microtubule cytoskeleton of the touch receptor neurons. Such linkage provides the basis for a mechanism of mechanosensation whereby microtubule displacement leads to channel opening.

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Author notes

  1. Mingxia Huang

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA

  2. Edwin L. Ferguson

    Present address: Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, 920 E. 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, 1012 Fairchild, New York, New York, 10027, USA

    Mingxia Huang, Guoqiang Gu, Edwin L. Ferguson & Martin Chalfie

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  1. Mingxia Huang
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  2. Guoqiang Gu
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  4. Martin Chalfie
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Huang, M., Gu, G., Ferguson, E. et al. A stomatin-like protein necessary for mechanosensation in C. elegans. Nature 378, 292–295 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/378292a0

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