Sensing pH with TMCs

Abstract

Transmembrane channel-like (TMC) proteins have been implicated in hair cell mechanotransduction, Drosophila proprioception, and sodium sensing in the nematode C. elegans. In this issue of Neuron, Wang et al. (2016) report that C. elegans TMC-1 mediates nociceptor responses to high pH, not sodium, allowing the nematode to avoid strongly alkaline environments in which most animals cannot survive.