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posted by janrinok on Tuesday January 30 2018, @01:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the flavour-of-ear-wax dept.

Scientists at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have discovered an entirely new class of ion channels. These channels let protons (H+ ions) into cells, are important in the inner ear for balance, and are present in the taste cells that respond to sour flavors.

The findings were published Thursday, Jan. 25 in Science.

Protons control whether a solution is acidic or basic. They set pH. Not surprisingly, protons do not cross cell membranes; they must be transported across the membrane through special proteins like ion channels.

Although a gene encoding an ion channel that lets protons leave cells has been identified, whether one gene or several genes were necessary to form an ion channel that lets protons into cells was unknown. Now, research into sour taste has identified the otopetrin family of genes as encoding proton-conducting ion channels.

[...] "We never in a million years expected that the molecule that we were looking for in taste cells would also be found in the vestibular system," Liman said. "This highlights the power of basic or fundamental research."

Source: ScienceDaily

Yu-Hsiang Tu, Alexander J. Cooper, Bochuan Teng, B. Rui Chang, Daniel J. Artiga, Heather N. Turner, Eric M. Mulhall, Wenlei Ye, Andrew D. Smith, Emily R. Liman. An evolutionarily conserved gene family encodes proton-selective ion channels. Science, 2018; eaao3264 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao3264


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  • (Score: 2) by LVDOVICVS on Tuesday January 30 2018, @04:41AM (2 children)

    by LVDOVICVS (6131) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @04:41AM (#630190)

    Does this mean I should be sucking on lemons to cure my vertigo? Or am I supposed to be avoiding them?

    Hep me I'm dizzy!

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @02:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @02:04PM (#630336)

    And suddenly you become an ace of the tight rope.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @03:56PM (#631508)

    For BPPV you should try the Epley maneuver or similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SLm76jQg3g [youtube.com]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epley_maneuver [wikipedia.org]