Cochlear Hair Cells are tuned to respond to different sound frequencies. These cells are arrayed in a tonotopic gradient, with low frequency responders at the apical end of the cochlea and high frequency responders at the basal end. Birds and reptiles uses alternative splicing of BK Channels as one facet of tuning these hair cells to transduce different sound frequencies. Isolation of cochlear cell mRNA has revealed that each cell expresses a different subset of BK Channel mRNA.
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