19 September 2002

Inside the mammalian ear: Hear hair

Since the cloning 2 years ago of prestin — the motor protein of the mammalian outer hair cell — news of the phenotype of prestin knockout mice has been eagerly awaited. Prestin enables transmembrane voltage to change cellular length at audio frequencies. In prestin knockouts, outer hair cells lose
electromotility and mice suffer a loss of cochlear sensitivity. There has been much debate about whether the cochlea uses hair cell bodies or bundles to amplify sound, but these results suggest that there is no need to invoke additional active processes to explain the ear's sensitivity.

Prestin is required for electromotility of the outer hair cell and for the cochlear amplifier
M. CHARLES LIBERMAN, JIANGANG GAO, DAVID Z. Z. HE, XUDONG WU, SHUPING JIA & JIAN ZUO
Nature 419, 300–304 (2002); doi:10.1038/nature01059
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