Intracellular calcium affects prestin's voltage operating point indirectly via turgor-induced membrane tension

Abstract

Recent identification of a calmodulin binding site within prestin's C-terminus indicates that calcium can significantly alter prestin's operating voltage range as gauged by the Boltzmann parameter Vh (Keller et al., J. Neuroscience, 2014). We reasoned that those experiments may have identified the molecular substrate for the protein's tension sensitivity. In an effort to understand how this may happen, we evaluated the effects of turgor pressure on such shifts produced by calcium. We find that the shifts are induced by calcium's ability to reduce turgor pressure during whole cell voltage clamp recording. Clamping turgor pressure to 1kPa, the cell's normal intracellular pressure, completely counters the calcium effect. Furthermore, following unrestrained shifts, collapsing the cells abolishes induced shifts. We conclude that calcium does not work by direct action on prestin's conformational state. The possibility remains that calcium interaction with prestin alters water movements within the cell, possibly via its anion transport function.