Myosin VIIA 138-1 immunoaffinity purification

Through its activity in stereocilia, MYO7A (myosin VIIA) is essential for hair cell function in the inner ear. Utilizing multiple stages of immunoaffinity enrichment, we have developed a strategy that allows us to partially purify stereocilia membranes from thousands of chick inner ears and isolate low-abundance MYO7A protein complexes from those membranes. By analysis of MYO7A and co-purifying molecules with shotgun and targeted mass spectrometry, we demonstrated that MYO7A forms a complex with PDZD7, a paralog of USH1C and DFNB31, which has been shown to localize to the ankle-link region of stereocilia.