ABSTRACT
Mechanosensory and thermosensory neurons have a diversity of tasks in invertebrate animals. Mechanosensory neurons must detect mechanical stimuli as harsh as the penetration of a parasitoid wasp ovipositor and as gentle as the brush of bacteria while an animal glides along an agar plate. Work in invertebrates has provided important insights into the structure and function of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. In Drosophila cells, the painless gene is transcribed as three RNA variants that are predicted to encode Pain protein isoforms with variable length N-terminal domains. Transient receptor potential melastatin (TRPA) channels have a clear role as transduction channels in Drosophila thermosensory cells and can form channels that are gated by temperature when heterologously expressed. Altering the length of the N-terminus and the number of ankyrin repeats in TRPN channels affects interactions between the plasma membrane and microtubules in Drosophila mechanosensory cells.
