Speaker：Lai Wei（魏来）Zelin Wei（魏泽林）Jingjing Liu（刘菁菁）Yuxiang Huang（黄宇翔）

Time：10:00 - 13:00

Abstract

Audition, vision, olfaction, gustation and tactile response have been listed by Aristotle as the five peripheral sensations of us human beings. How do we “sense” the outside world has been a question attracting scientists for years. A general view is that, differentiated receptors are finely tuned at different sensory organs in order to receive, calculate, and transform physical and chemical stimulations into afferents conveyed to the CNS; and they are further manipulated as efferent signals to which our locomotion reacts.

We’ve already drawn the ground maps of sensations like vision and audition. However, the sensory mechanism of skin remains undiscovered in many aspects. As the largest organ of mammalians, skin plays an indispensable role in peripheral sensation, including temperature, pain and light touch. Research of capsaicin and its receptor TRPV1 began the exploration of the neuronal circuits of heat and pain. There’s also the concept of “innocuous touch”, in which the related receptors Aβ, Aδ and C-LTMRs have been tested for their electrophysiological properties. But, despite being investigated for nearly a century, only in recent years have some groundbreaking researches in this area come into our views again.

As Li et al. reported in 2011, we’ve now had the markers to selectively identify the different types of LTMRs both around the hair follicles and in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Using this technique, they further determined their relative position and abundance, that is, the Aδ-LTMRs and C-LTMRs compose the main role of the innocuous perception of skin. The mechanisms and regulations of such LTMRs again became a focus in recent years. The first selected article introduced the crucial rule of BDNF-TrkB signaling pathway in direction preference of Aδ-LTMRs, the latter one, from a different perspective, showed the regulation role of L-typed Calcium channels in regulating C-LTMRs functions. The gorgeous map is not limited to what are mentioned above, and the future of this rather old field would be indeed promising.

Guest information:

1. Wu, Jason, Amanda H. Lewis, and Jörg Grandl. "Touch, tension, and transduction–the function and regulation of Piezo ion channels." Trends in biochemical sciences 42.1 (2017): 57-71.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2016.09.004

1. Wende, Hagen, et al. "The transcription factor c-Maf controls touch receptor development and function." Science 335.6074 (2012): 1373-1376.

DOI: 10.1126/science.1214314

2. Woo, Seung-Hyun, et al. "Piezo2 is required for Merkel-cell mechanotransduction." Nature 509.7502 (2014): 622.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13251