Exposure to intense noise can damage cochlear hair cells,leading to hearing loss in mammals.To avoid this constraint,most mammals have evolved in relatively quiet environments.Echolocating bats,however,are naturally e...Exposure to intense noise can damage cochlear hair cells,leading to hearing loss in mammals.To avoid this constraint,most mammals have evolved in relatively quiet environments.Echolocating bats,however,are naturally exposed to continuous intense sounds from their own and neighboring sonar emissions for maintaining sonar directionality and range.Here,we propose the presence of intense noise resistance in cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats against noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL).To test this hypothesis,we performed noise exposure experiments for laboratory mice,one nonecholocating bat species,and five echolocating bat species.Contrary to nonecholocating fruit bats and mice,the hearing and the cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats remained unimpaired after continuous intense noise exposure.The comparative analyses of cochleae transcriptomic data showed that several genes protecting cochlear hair cells from intense sounds were overexpressed in echolocating bats.Particularly,the experimental examinations revealed that ISL1 overexpression significantly improved the survival of cochlear hair cells.Our findings support the existence of protective effects in cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats against intense noises,which provides new insight into understanding the relationship between cochlear hair cells and intense noises,and preventing or ameliorating NIHL in mammals.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31930011,31922010,31871270),Chinathe China National Center for Biotechnology Development(2020YFC0847000)+3 种基金the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(KJZD-SWL11)the Yunnan Fundamental Research Project(No.2019FI008),China.J.T.was supported by the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University(IRT_16R37).L.B.Z.was supported by the GDAS Special Project of Science and Technology Development(2018GDASCX-0107).
文摘Exposure to intense noise can damage cochlear hair cells,leading to hearing loss in mammals.To avoid this constraint,most mammals have evolved in relatively quiet environments.Echolocating bats,however,are naturally exposed to continuous intense sounds from their own and neighboring sonar emissions for maintaining sonar directionality and range.Here,we propose the presence of intense noise resistance in cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats against noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL).To test this hypothesis,we performed noise exposure experiments for laboratory mice,one nonecholocating bat species,and five echolocating bat species.Contrary to nonecholocating fruit bats and mice,the hearing and the cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats remained unimpaired after continuous intense noise exposure.The comparative analyses of cochleae transcriptomic data showed that several genes protecting cochlear hair cells from intense sounds were overexpressed in echolocating bats.Particularly,the experimental examinations revealed that ISL1 overexpression significantly improved the survival of cochlear hair cells.Our findings support the existence of protective effects in cochlear hair cells of echolocating bats against intense noises,which provides new insight into understanding the relationship between cochlear hair cells and intense noises,and preventing or ameliorating NIHL in mammals.
