Hair cell mechano-transduction: its influence on the gross mechanical characteristics of a hair cell sense organ.

The complex mechanical behaviour of a hair cell bundle appears to be a direct consequence of the gating forces on the individual transduction channels. The mechanical molecular interactions involved in transduction channel gating, therefore, also bear a reciprocal influence, via the hair bundles, on the mechanical properties of accessory structures driving them. This allows for the possibility to investigate, under in vivo conditions, the mechanical gating machinery of ion channels via the dynamics of accessory structures. We have performed such studies on the lateral line organ of fish and were thus able to relate the mechanics of elementary molecular events to the macroscopical dynamics of an intact organ.