This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31522025,31571080,81873703,81770995,and 31861163003);Beijing Munic ipal Science and Technology Commission(Z181100001518001);a startup fund from the Tsinghua-Peking Centerfor Life Sciences to W.X.W.X.is a CIBR cooperative investigator(2020-NKX-XM-04)funded by the Open Collaborative Research Program of Chinese Institute for Brain Research;National Key Research and Development Project(2018YFC1003003);The Postdoctoral International Exchange Program(Talent-Introduction Program);the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine on Ear and Nose Diseases(14DZ2260300).
In mammals,the piezoelectric protein,Prestin,endows the outer hair cells(OHCs)with electromotility(eM),which confers the capacity to change cellular length in response to alterations in membrane potential.Together wit...