TRPV1 is a polymodal nociceptor for diverse physical and chemical stimuli that interact with different parts of the channel protein. Recent cryo-EM studies revealed detailed channel structures, opening the door for mapping structural elements mediating activation by each stimulus. Towards this goal, here we have combined unstructured peptide-insertion screening (UPS) with electrophysiological and fluorescence recordings to explore structural and functional roles of the intracellular regions of TRPV1 in mediating various activation stimuli. We found that most of the tightly packed protein regions did not tolerate structural perturbation by UPS when tested, indicating that structural integrity of the intracellular region is critical. In agreement with previous reports, Ca 2+ -dependent desensitization is strongly dependent on both intracellular N-and C-terminal domains; insertions of an unstructured peptide between these domains and the transmembrane core domain nearly eliminated Ca 2+ -dependent desensitization. In contrast, channel activations by capsaicin, low pH, divalent cations, and even heat are mostly intact in mutant channels containing the same insertions. These observations suggest that the transmembrane core domain of TRPV1, but not the intracellular domains, is responsible for sensing these stimuli.TRPV1 ion channel can be directly activated or modulated by capsaicin 1 , heat 1 , extracellular proton 2 , divalent cations 3 , Na + 4 , peptide toxins from spider 5 , centipede 6 , and scorpion 7 , membrane depolarization 8 , intracellular Ca 2+ 9 , and many other factors 10 . A noticeable feature of TRPV1 polymodal activation emerging from biophysical investigations is the existence of non-overlapping activation pathways [11][12][13] . However, except for capsaicin 14-19 , proton 11,20 , and animal toxins 6,21 , the channel structures that sense activation stimuli are poorly defined. Recent cryo-EM studies revealed that the transmembrane core domain of TRPV1 resembles that of tetrameric cation channels, with six transmembrane helical segments surrounding a centrally located ion permeation pore 22,23 . The partially resolved intracellular N-and C-terminal domains contain special structures such as the ankyrin-like repeat domains and the TRP domain that likely play crucial structural and/or functional roles 10 . Arrangement of intracellular domains has been investigated using fluorescence resonance energy transfer 24 . A major task for TRPV1 study in the post-structure era is to assign functional roles to individual structure domains.The unstructured peptide-insertion screening (UPS) strategy had been used to rapidly and reliably obtain information on structure-function relationships in an ion channel even before detailed protein structures were available. In one effective application, isolating the pore domain of yeast TRPY1 channel from the intracellular Ca 2+ -sensing domain with unstructured peptides demonstrated that the pore domain was mechanosensitive 25 . Similarly, unstructured peptide insertion...