The R109H Variant of Fascin-2, a Developmentally Regulated Actin Crosslinker in Hair-Cell Stereocilia, Underlies Early-Onset Hearing Loss of DBA/2J Mice
The Journal of Neuroscience, July 21, 2010 • 30(29):9683–9694 • 9683 Cellular/Molecular The R109H Variant of Fascin-2, a Developmentally Regulated Actin Crosslinker in Hair-Cell Stereocilia, Underlies Early-Onset Hearing Loss of DBA/2J Mice Jung-Bum Shin,1,2 Chantal M. Longo-Guess,5 Leona H. Gagnon,5 Katherine W. Saylor,1,2 Rachel A. Dumont,1,2 Kateri J. Spinelli,1,2 James M. Pagana,1,2 Phillip A. Wilmarth,3,4 Larry L. David,3,4 Peter G. Gillespie,1,2 and Kenneth R. Johnson5 1Oregon Hearing Research Center, 2Vollum Institute, 3Proteomics Shared Resource, and 4Department of Biochemistry, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, and 5The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609 The quantitative trait locus ahl8 is a key contributor to the early-onset, age-related hearing loss of DBA/2J mice. A nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution in the mouse fascin-2 gene (Fscn2) is responsible for this phenotype, confirmed by wild-type BAC transgene rescue of hearing loss in DBA/2J mice. In chickens and mice, FSCN2 protein is abundant in hair-cell stereocilia, the actin-rich structures comprising the mechanically sensitive hair bundle, and is concentrated toward stereocilia tips of the bundle’s longest stereocilia. FSCN2 expression increases when these stereocilia differentially elongate, suggesting that FSCN2 controls filament growth, stiffens exposed stereocilia, or both. Because ahl8 accelerates hearing loss only in the presence of mutant cadherin 23, a component of hair-cell tip links, mechanotransduction and actin crosslinking must be functionally interrelated. Introduction espin, has very short stereocilia, and is profoundly deaf (Zheng et Hair cells of the inner ear detect and transduce mechanical dis- al., 2000).
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