Sensory biology: it takes Piezo2 to tango

Valeria Vásquez; Gregory Scherrer; Miriam B Goodman

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.011

Sensory biology: it takes Piezo2 to tango

Curr Biol. 2014 Jun 16;24(12):R566-R569. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.011.

Authors

Valeria Vásquez¹, Gregory Scherrer², Miriam B Goodman³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
² Departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
³ Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address: mbgoodman@stanford.edu.

Abstract

A trio of papers has resolved an outstanding controversy regarding the function of Merkel cells and their afferent nerve fiber partners. Merkel cells sense mechanical stimuli (through Piezo2), fire action potentials, and are sufficient to activate downstream sensory neurons.

Grants and funding

R00 DA031777/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States