IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v419y2002i6904d10.1038_nature01059.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prestin is required for electromotility of the outer hair cell and for the cochlear amplifier

Author

Listed:
  • M. Charles Liberman

    (Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary
    Ear Infirmary)

  • Jiangang Gao

    (St Jude Children's Research Hospital)

  • David Z. Z. He

    (Boys Town National Research Hospital)

  • Xudong Wu

    (St Jude Children's Research Hospital
    University of Tennessee Health Science Center)

  • Shuping Jia

    (Boys Town National Research Hospital)

  • Jian Zuo

    (St Jude Children's Research Hospital)

Abstract

Hearing sensitivity in mammals is enhanced by more than 40 dB (that is, 100-fold) by mechanical amplification thought to be generated by one class of cochlear sensory cells, the outer hair cells1,2,3,4. In addition to the mechano-electrical transduction required for auditory sensation, mammalian outer hair cells also perform electromechanical transduction, whereby transmembrane voltage drives cellular length changes at audio frequencies in vitro5,6,7. This electromotility is thought to arise through voltage-gated conformational changes in a membrane protein8,9, and prestin has been proposed as this molecular motor10,11,12. Here we show that targeted deletion of prestin in mice results in loss of outer hair cell electromotility in vitro and a 40–60 dB loss of cochlear sensitivity in vivo, without disruption of mechano-electrical transduction in outer hair cells. In heterozygotes, electromotility is halved and there is a twofold (about 6 dB) increase in cochlear thresholds. These results suggest that prestin is indeed the motor protein, that there is a simple and direct coupling between electromotility and cochlear amplification, and that there is no need to invoke additional active processes to explain cochlear sensitivity in the mammalian ear.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Charles Liberman & Jiangang Gao & David Z. Z. He & Xudong Wu & Shuping Jia & Jian Zuo, 2002. "Prestin is required for electromotility of the outer hair cell and for the cochlear amplifier," Nature, Nature, vol. 419(6904), pages 300-304, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:419:y:2002:i:6904:d:10.1038_nature01059
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01059
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature01059?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Makoto F. Kuwabara & Bassam G. Haddad & Dominik Lenz-Schwab & Julia Hartmann & Piersilvio Longo & Britt-Marie Huckschlag & Anneke Fuß & Annalisa Questino & Thomas K. Berger & Jan-Philipp Machtens & Do, 2023. "Elevator-like movements of prestin mediate outer hair cell electromotility," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Adam Sheppard & Massimo Ralli & Antonio Gilardi & Richard Salvi, 2020. "Occupational Noise: Auditory and Non-Auditory Consequences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Haon Futamata & Masahiro Fukuda & Rie Umeda & Keitaro Yamashita & Atsuhiro Tomita & Satoe Takahashi & Takafumi Shikakura & Shigehiko Hayashi & Tsukasa Kusakizako & Tomohiro Nishizawa & Kazuaki Homma &, 2022. "Cryo-EM structures of thermostabilized prestin provide mechanistic insights underlying outer hair cell electromotility," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:419:y:2002:i:6904:d:10.1038_nature01059. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.