Prestin-Based Outer Hair Cell Motility Is Necessary for Mammalian Cochlear Amplification

It is a central tenet of cochlear neurobiology that mammalian ears rely on a local, mechanical amplification process for their high sensitivity and sharp frequency selectivity. While there is general agreement that outer hair cells provide the amplification, two mechanisms have been proposed: stereociliary motility and somatic motility. The latter is driven by the motor protein prestin. Electrophysiological phenotyping of a prestin knockout mouse intimated that somatic motility is the amplifier. However, outer hair cells of knockout mice have significantly altered mechanical properties, which makes this mouse model unsatisfactory. Here we study a new mouse model without alteration to outer hair cell and organ of Corti mechanics or to mechano-electric transduction, but with diminished prestin function. These animals have knockout-like behavior, demonstrating that prestin-based electromotility is required for cochlear amplification.