Fig. 1.
A) The system of charges inside and near outer hair cell membrane affecting the local potential and electric and b) The left panel shows the cylindrical domain occupied by prestin, typical electrical permittivities of three regions under consideration, inside prestin, inside the membrane and outside prestin, and outside the membrane, the total mobile charge, q, and its average position, zq. The right panel sketches a conceptual structure of prestin, including several transmembrane domains, charged residues, and mobile charge shown as a sphere.