Lipid bilayer mediates ion-channel cooperativity in a model of hair-cell mechanotransduction

Significance
Hearing relies on molecular machinery that consists of springs stretched by mechanical stimuli and mechanosensitive ion channels responding to the generated tension. Reproducing the experimental data theoretically without requiring unrealistically large conformational changes of the channels has been a longstanding hurdle. Here, we propose and develop a model with two mobile channels per spring, coupled by elastic forces within the membrane. The relative motion of the channels following their cooperative opening and closing produces the required change in spring extension. This study lies at the interface between the fields of membrane mechanics and mechanotransduction in the inner ear. It describes a physiological function for the bilayer-mediated cooperativity between mechanosensitive ion channels in a vertebrate sensory system.