The origins of the force-from-lipid principle and the founding member of the TRP channel superfamily.

Abstract

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology recognized the seminal work of David Julius, who established the temperature and pain sensory mechanisms based on the TRPV channel, and Ardem Patapoutian, who resolved the stretch activation mechanism for touch and proprietary sensation via Piezo channels. We are fortunate and proud to publish a special section on the force-from-lipid principle underlining Piezo channel activation and the origin of the first TRP channel, prepared by the pioneers who initiated the early work that led to the discoveries (Martinac & Kung, 2022; Minke & Pak, 2022). Professors Baruch Minke and William Pak recount the story of their early endeavor to reveal the phototransduction process mediated by the TRP channel in the fruit fly Drosophila. This light-sensitive TRP channel is now recognized as the founding member of the TRP channel superfamily, which encompasses a large category of channels underpinning different sensory mechanisms, including visual, auditory, thermal, and mechanosensory transduction. The functioning of Piezo channels turns out to be based on the same force-from-lipid principle, originating from lipid membrane lateral force without involving any cytoskeletal or cell adhesion molecules. As professors Ching Kung and Boris Martinac recount in their article, the initial finding actually originated from studies on a special strain of giant E. coli. Indeed, ‘what is true for E. coli is true for the elephant’.