The inner core enables transient touch detection in the Pacinian corpuscle
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Pacinian corpuscles detect transient touch and vibration in vertebrates. Corpuscles are composed of a mechanoreceptor afferent surrounded by lamellar Schwann cells (LSCs), enclosed by a multilayered outer core. The spatial arrangement of these components and their contribution to sensory tuning are unclear. We report the three-dimensional architecture of the Pacinian corpuscle and reveal the role of its cellular components in touch detection. In the prevailing model, the outer core acts as a mechanical filter that limits static and low-frequency stimuli from reaching the afferent terminal—the presumed sole site of touch detection. We show that the outer core is dispensable for the sensory tuning to transient touch and vibration; instead, these properties arise from the inner core. By acting as additional touch sensors, LSCs potentiate mechanosensitivity of the terminal, which detects touch via fast inactivating ion channels. Thus, functional tuning of the Pacinian corpuscle is enabled by an interplay between mechanosensitive LSCs and the afferent terminal in the inner core.
Source: Science Advances
Institution: Yale University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
Awards: Molecular mechanism of touch sensitivity in the Schnauzenorgan of the Elephant Nose Fish, G2262290324, Molecular mechanisms of the sense of touch, G9000164073, Mechanism of touch sensitivity in rapidly-adapting mechanosensory corpuscles, Molecular and cellular basis of reversible hypothermia
OpenAlex ID: W4407949100