Structural basis of cooling agent and lipid sensing by the cold-activated TRPM8 channel

Cool mechanism for sensing cool In humans, cold is primarily sensed by transient receptor potential melastatin member 8 (TRPM8), a calcium channel. Yin et al. present cryo–electron microscopy structures of TRPM8 with cooling agents, membrane lipid phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), and calcium. Structural and functional analyses showed that the PIP2 binding site in TRPM8 is completely different from PIP2 sites in other TRP channels. The binding of PIP2 and cooling agents allosterically enhance each other and activate the channel opening. Thus, the activation mechanism of TRPM8 is distinct from that used by other TRP channels. Science , this issue p. eaav9334