Prestin-Mediated Frequency Selectivity Does not Cover Ultrahigh Frequencies in Mice.
10.1007/s12264-022-00839-4
- Author:
Jie LI
1
;
Shuang LIU
1
;
Chenmeng SONG
1
;
Tong ZHU
1
;
Zhikai ZHAO
1
;
Wenzhi SUN
2
;
Yi WANG
3
;
Lei SONG
4
;
Wei XIONG
5
Author Information
1. School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
2. Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 102206, China.
3. School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. yiwang2020@tsinghua.edu.cn.
4. Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China. lei.song@yale.edu.
5. School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. wei_xiong@tsinghua.edu.cn.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Electromotility;
Outer hair cells;
PIEZO2;
Prestin;
Ultrahigh-frequency hearing
- MeSH:
Animals;
Cochlea/metabolism*;
Hair Cells, Auditory, Outer/metabolism*;
Hearing;
Humans;
Mammals/metabolism*;
Mice;
Mice, Knockout;
Molecular Motor Proteins/metabolism*
- From:
Neuroscience Bulletin
2022;38(7):769-784
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
In mammals, the piezoelectric protein, Prestin, endows the outer hair cells (OHCs) with electromotility (eM), which confers the capacity to change cellular length in response to alterations in membrane potential. Together with basilar membrane resonance and possible stereociliary motility, Prestin-based OHC eM lays the foundation for enhancing cochlear sensitivity and frequency selectivity. However, it remains debatable whether Prestin contributes to ultrahigh-frequency hearing due to the intrinsic nature of the cell's low-pass features. The low-pass property of mouse OHC eM is based on the finding that eM magnitude dissipates within the frequency bandwidth of human speech. In this study, we examined the role of Prestin in sensing broad-range frequencies (4-80 kHz) in mice that use ultrasonic hearing and vocalization (to >100 kHz) for social communication. The audiometric measurements in mice showed that ablation of Prestin did not abolish hearing at frequencies >40 kHz. Acoustic associative behavior tests confirmed that Prestin-knockout mice can learn ultrahigh-frequency sound-coupled tasks, similar to control mice. Ex vivo cochlear Ca2+ imaging experiments demonstrated that without Prestin, the OHCs still exhibit ultrahigh-frequency transduction, which in contrast, can be abolished by a universal cation channel blocker, Gadolinium. In vivo salicylate treatment disrupts hearing at frequencies <40 kHz but not ultrahigh-frequency hearing. By pharmacogenetic manipulation, we showed that specific ablation of the OHCs largely abolished hearing at frequencies >40 kHz. These findings demonstrate that cochlear OHCs are the target cells that support ultrahigh-frequency transduction, which does not require Prestin.
