Krystnell A. StorrCan you tell the difference between high – and low –thread-count sheets just by touching them? Thank usherin, a protein found in a mysterious structure in your fingertips.
Usherin also helps us see and hear, suggesting a deep molecular connection among our most important senses.“The work is surprising,” says Ellen Lumpkin, a neuroscientist at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.
The study, she says, points to a single protein being used over and over again in distinct ways to help us monitor the outside world.Scientists already had some hints that usherin is important for our sense of touch.