A burden shared: The evolutionary case for studying human deafness in Drosophila.

Autor: Guan C; Sensory Physiology & Behaviour Group, Department for Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Str. 9-11, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Str. 9-11, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany., Shaikh M; Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1 × 8EE, UK., Warnecke A; Hannover Medical School, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Hannover, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, MHH Hannover, Germany., Vona B; Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Institute for Auditory Neuroscience and InnerEarLab, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: barbara.vona@med.uni-goettingen.de., Albert JT; Sensory Physiology & Behaviour Group, Department for Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Str. 9-11, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Str. 9-11, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany; Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1 × 8EE, UK. Electronic address: joerg.albert@uni-oldenburg.de.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Hearing research [Hear Res] 2024 Sep 01; Vol. 450, pp. 109047. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 15.
DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2024.109047
Abstrakt: Hearing impairment is the most prevalent sensory disease in humans and can have dramatic effects on the development, and preservation, of our cognitive abilities and social interactions. Currently 20 % of the world's population suffer from a form of hearing impairment; this is predicted to rise to 25 % by 2050. Despite this staggering disease load, and the vast damage it inflicts on the social, medical and economic fabric of humankind, our ability to predict, or prevent, the loss of hearing is very poor indeed. We here make the case for a paradigm shift in our approach to studying deafness. By exploiting more forcefully the molecular-genetic conservation between human hearing and hearing in morphologically distinct models, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, we believe, a deeper understanding of hearing and deafness can be achieved. An understanding that moves beyond the surface of the 'deafness genes' to probe the underlying bedrock of hearing, which is shared across taxa, and partly shared across modalities. When it comes to understanding the workings (and failings) of human sensory function, a simple fruit fly has a lot to offer and a fly eye might sometimes be a powerful model for a human ear. Particularly the use of fly avatars, in which specific molecular (genetic or proteomic) states of humans (e.g. specific patients) are experimentally reproduced, in order to study the corresponding molecular mechanisms (e.g. specific diseases) in a controlled yet naturalistic environment, is a tool that promises multiple unprecedented insights. The use of the fly - and fly avatars - would benefit humans and will help enhance the power of other scientific models, such as the mouse.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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