Techniques for the Study of Sensory Hair Cells

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Guest Editor

Duane McPherson

SUNY Geneseo, Department of Biology

Duane McPherson is an emeritus professor of biology at SUNY Geneseo, where he taught for 26 years in the areas of animal physiology, cellular neurobiology, and general biology. His research interests are in neuroethology and neurophysiology, especially in the synaptic organization of central pattern generator networks for locomotion. A major focus of his research is on the role of serotonin as a neuromodulator in locomotor systems of gastropod molluscs. His interest in sensory hair cells grew from his physiology teaching and led to his organizing a symposium on the integrative biology of hair cells at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. This is one of the few major symposia ever to be dedicated specifically to the study of hair cells. Dr. McPherson received a BA in Biology from Brown University, an MS in Zoology from the University of Georgia, and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where he studied the neurophysiology of Aplysia with Dr. James E. Blankenship. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. James T. Buchanan at Marquette University, where he studied the synaptic organization of the spinal central pattern generator for swimming in lampreys. Another of his interests is to develop undergraduate laboratory exercises that are both challenging and practical to carry out. He has developed a series of labs in physiology and neurobiology which are designed to allow students to discover fundamental concepts for themselves from the data they collect.

Collection Overview

Sensory hair cells form the basis for the vertebrate senses of hearing, balance, linear acceleration, and angular acceleration. Fish and some aquatic amphibians also use hair cells to detect water flow and water pressure changes through their lateral line systems. They also use electroreceptors, derived from hair cell precursors, to detect electrical fields in the water. Hair cells have also been identified in tunicates, our chordate cousins. All sensory hair cells are mechanosensory, and transduction is achieved by displacement of a bundle of stereocilia at the apical end of the cell, which in turn gates ion channels. Hair cells are highly differentiated and strongly polarized in structure, which makes understanding their structure integral to understanding how they function. Damage to hair cells in the mammalian cochlea causes permanent hearing decrement because cochlear hair cells do not regenerate in mammals. Similarly, mutations disturbing hair cell development are a primary cause for genetic deafness in humans and other mammals. In contrast, cochlear hair cells regenerate in birds and reptiles. Research on hair cells involves a wide variety of techniques, including molecular genetics, biochemistry, in situ hybridization, patch clamp electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and optical imaging of ion fluxes across membranes. The purpose of this methods collection is to make these specialized techniques more accessible, and in the process to excite further interest in the study of these fascinating cells.