Figure 2.

Variability in appearance of tip-link extended structure. (A–C) Images of the tip link of Fig. 1B acquired with different tilt angles showing different apparent thickness of the tip link and its carbon coat. Despite degradation of the platinum image of the tip link, the enveloping carbon coat still shows the 30-nm periodic widening (arrows) and narrowing consistent with the projected view of a helical structure. (D) Images of the extended structure of different tip links from guinea pig cochlea (first two panels from left to right) and from bullfrog sacculus (three panels to the right). (Scale bars = 15 nm.)