Characterization of transcriptomes of cochlear inner and outer hair cells.

ABSTRACT: Inner hair cells (IHCs) and outer hair cells (OHCs) are the two types of sensory receptor cells that are critical for hearing in the mammalian cochlea. IHCs and OHCs have different morphology and function. The genetic mechanisms that define their morphological and functional specializations are essentially unknown. The transcriptome reflects the genes that are being actively expressed in a cell and holds the key to understanding the molecular mechanisms of the biological properties of the cell. Using DNA microarray, we examined the transcriptome of 2000 individually collected IHCs and OHCs from adult mouse cochleae. We show that 16,647 and 17,711 transcripts are expressed in IHCs and OHCs, respectively. Of those genes, ∼73% are known genes, 22% are uncharacterized sequences, and 5.0% are n

SUBMITTER: Liu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4131018 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature