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Transduction Channels in Sensory Cells

edited by Stephan Frings and Jonathan Bradley (July 2004)

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Sensory cells have the task of converting external stimuli (light, smell, sound, taste, touch, etc) into electrical signals that the brain can use to achieve a perception of the environment. This process is termed transduction, and the first electrical event in any sensory cell is the movement of ions across the cells' membrane via the opening or closing of specialized transduction channels. Proteins involved in transduction are exquisitely tuned to their respective sensory modality and hence allow the perception of extremely weak stimuli such as a few photons, a few odour molecules, or mechanical translocations on the scale of a few atoms.   In recent years, research into the structure and regulation of transduction channels has seen considerable progress. Thus, new experiments on transduction channels of photoreceptors, olfactory sensory neurons, taste cells, mechanoreceptors as well as receptors for temperature and pain provide the first comprehensive models for sensory function. Moreover, exciting new findings in the more enigmatic senses like electroreception and magnetoreception hold promise for progress in these topics.

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Table of contents:

• Section 1: Mechanotransduction
  Chapter 1: The molecular basis of touch sensation as modeled in Caenorhabditis elegans.
  (by Laura Bianchi and Monica Driscoll)
  Chapter 2: Transduction channels in hair cells
  (by Robert Fettiplace)
  

• Section 2: Chemotransduction
  Chapter 3: Acid-sensing ion channels
  (by Kenneth A. Cushman and Edwin W. McCleskey)
  Chapter 4: Chemosensory transduction in Caenorhabditis elegans
  (by Noelle L´Etoile)
  Chapter 5: Vertebrate olfactory signal transduction and the interplay of excitatory anionic and cationic currents.
  (by: Johannes Reisert and Jonathan Bradley)
  Chapter 6: Transduction channels in the vomeronasal organ
  (by Emily R. Liman and Frank Zufall)
  Chapter 7: Transduction mechanisms in taste cells
  (by Kathryn Medler and Sue C. Kinnamon)

• Section 3: Phototransduction
  Chapter 8: Invertebrate phototransduction: multimolecular signaling complexes and the role of Trp and Trpl channels
  (by Armin Huber)
  Chapter 9: The transduction channels of rod and cone photoreceptors
  (by U. Benjamin Kaupp and Dimitri Tränkner)
  

• Complex senses of the body
  Chapter 10: Ion channels and thermotransduction
  (by Michael J. Caterina)
  Chapter 11: Pain transduction: gating and modulation of ion channels
  (by Peter McNaughton)
  Chapter 12: Transduction and transmission in electroreceptor organs
  (by Robert C. Peters and Jean-Pierre Denizot)

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Transduction Channels in Sensory Cells Frings, S., Bradley, J., etds., 304 pages Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany (2004) ISBN: 3-527-30836-9

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Stephan Frings University of Heidelberg Germany

Jonathan Bradley Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, USA

Contact: info@transduction-channels.net   last edited: 02. 08. 2004

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