Premium
What can the zebrafish lateral line teach us about hearing?
Author(s) -
Piotrowski Tatjana,
Lush Mark,
Duncan Robert
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.59.2
Subject(s) - zebrafish , lateral line , inner ear , hair cell , vestibular system , sensory system , biology , neuroscience , anatomy , kinocilium , cochlea , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genetics
Zebrafish and the majority of other aquatic vertebrates possess hair cells not only in the vestibular sensory epithelia of the ear but also in their skin. These hair cells are part of a sensory system called the lateral line, so‐named because the sensory organs are arranged in lines on the trunk and around the eyes. The function of the sensory lateral line is to detect water motion and initiate the appropriate behavioral response for capturing prey, avoiding predators and schooling. The sensory organs are composed of support cells surrounding hair cells that are very similar to the hair cells of the inner ear of vertebrates. Importantly, despite the unusual location of the hair cells on the trunk, lateral line and ear hair cells develop and differentiate by similar stereotyped developmental mechanisms. For example, mutations in genes causing deafness in humans also disrupt hair cell function in the zebrafish lateral line and vestibular system (reviewed in Nicolson T., 2005). However, in contrast to human inner ear hair cells, the lateral line hair cells of zebrafish regenerate after damage and are accessible to experimental manipulation and visualization. We are therefore employing zebrafish as a valuable new model system to study signaling pathways that underly the development, as well as regeneration of hair cells.