Person:

Corey, David

We describe three recombinant engineered antibodies against three recombinant epitope tags, constructed with divalent binding arms to recognize divalent epitopes and so achieve high affinity and specificity. In two versions, an epitope is inserted in tandem into a protein of interest, and a homodimeric antibody is constructed by fusing a high-affinity epitope-binding domain to a human or mouse Fc domain. In a third, a heterodimeric antibody is constructed by fusing two different epitope-binding domains which target two different binding sites in GFP, to polarized Fc fragments. These antibody/epitope pairs have affinities in the low picomolar range and are useful tools for many antibody-based applications.

Members of the TRP superfamily of ion channels mediate mechanosensation in some organisms, and have been suggested as candidates for the mechanotransduction channel in vertebrate hair cells. Some TRP channels can be ruled out based on lack of an inner ear phenotype in knockout animals or pore properties not similar to the hair-cell channel. Such studies have excluded Trpv4, Trpa1, Trpml3, Trpm1, Trpm3, Trpc1, Trpc3, Trpc5, and Trpc6. However, others remain reasonable candidates. We used data from an RNA-seq analysis of gene expression in hair cells as well as data on TRP channel conductance to narrow the candidate group. We then characterized mice lacking functional Trpm2, Pkd2, Pkd2l1, Pkd2l2 and Pkd1l3, using scanning electron microscopy, auditory brainstem response, permeant dye accumulation, and single-cell electrophysiology. In all of these TRP-deficient mice, and in double and triple knockouts, mechanotransduction persisted. Together with published studies, these results argue against the participation of any of the 33 mouse TRP channels in hair cell transduction.