| First Author | Kindt KS | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 2861 |
| PubMed ID | 34001891 | Mgi Jnum | J:306060 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6713889 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-021-22997-1 |
| Citation | Kindt KS, et al. (2021) EMX2-GPR156-Galphai reverses hair cell orientation in mechanosensory epithelia. Nat Commun 12(1):2861 |
| abstractText | Hair cells detect sound, head position or water movements when their mechanosensory hair bundle is deflected. Each hair bundle has an asymmetric architecture that restricts stimulus detection to a single axis. Coordinated hair cell orientations within sensory epithelia further tune stimulus detection at the organ level. Here, we identify GPR156, an orphan GPCR of unknown function, as a critical regulator of hair cell orientation. We demonstrate that the transcription factor EMX2 polarizes GPR156 distribution, enabling it to signal through Galphai and trigger a 180 degrees reversal in hair cell orientation. GPR156-Galphai mediated reversal is essential to establish hair cells with mirror-image orientations in mouse otolith organs in the vestibular system and in zebrafish lateral line. Remarkably, GPR156-Galphai also instructs hair cell reversal in the auditory epithelium, despite a lack of mirror-image organization. Overall, our work demonstrates that conserved GPR156-Galphai signaling is integral to the framework that builds directional responses into mechanosensory epithelia. |
