Identification of the Inner Ear Protein That Is Central to Hearing

The key sensory molecules for pain, touch, taste, smell, and vision have been identified (discoveries often recognized with Nobel Prizes) — but the root molecule for hearing has been elusive. We have known for more than a century that inner ear hair cells play a crucial role in both hearing and balance and that the hair cells likely send signals through the eighth nerve to the brain after activating a pore, or ion channel. However, 40 years of attempts have failed to illuminate that pore and the key proteins that form it.

Investigators now report that they finally have identified the key pore protein for hearing: transmembrane channel-like protein (TMC)-1, which forms a calcium channel. Using adenovirus vectors, investigators systematically …