In This Issue

摘要

The inner and outer hair cells of the mammalian cochlea are key for translating sounds into electrical signals sent to the brain. The inner hair cells transmit sound data with high temporal precision; the outer hair cells mediate sensitivity and frequency selectivity. Stephanie Kuhn et al. (pp. 2355-2360) examined the development of immature hair cells in newborn mice to uncover details about the complex genetic program that unfurls during the first 12 days after birth, culminating in the differentiation of distinct inner and outer cells, and the ability to respond to sound. The authors found that hair cell development is blocked around the time of birth in a strain of mice called diminuendo, which carry a single base mutation in the miR-96 microRNA.