Using Drosophila to Study Mechanisms of Hereditary Hearing Loss Tongchao Li1,*, Hugo J
© 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | Disease Models & Mechanisms (2018) 11, dmm031492. doi:10.1242/dmm.031492 REVIEW Using Drosophila to study mechanisms of hereditary hearing loss Tongchao Li1,*, Hugo J. Bellen1,2,3,4,5 and Andrew K. Groves1,3,5,‡ ABSTRACT Keats and Corey, 1999; Kimberling et al., 2010; Mathur and Yang, Johnston’s organ – the hearing organ of Drosophila – has a very 2015). It is an autosomal recessive genetic disease, characterized by different structure and morphology to that of the hearing organs of varying degrees of deafness and retinitis pigmentosa-induced vision vertebrates. Nevertheless, it is becoming clear that vertebrate and loss. Although our understanding of genetic hearing loss has invertebrate auditory organs share many physiological, molecular advanced greatly over the past 20 years (Vona et al., 2015), there is a and genetic similarities. Here, we compare the molecular and cellular pressing need for experimental systems to understand the function features of hearing organs in Drosophila with those of vertebrates, of the proteins encoded by deafness genes. The mouse is well and discuss recent evidence concerning the functional conservation established as a model for studying human genetic deafness (Brown of Usher proteins between flies and mammals. Mutations in Usher et al., 2008), but other model organisms, such as the fruit fly genes cause Usher syndrome, the leading cause of human deafness Drosophila, might also provide convenient and more rapid ways to and blindness. In Drosophila, some Usher syndrome proteins appear assay the function of candidate deafness genes. to physically interact in protein complexes that are similar to those In mammals, mechanosensitive hair cells reside in a specialized described in mammals.
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