Gata3 is required for the functional maturation of inner hair cells and their innervation in the mouse cochlea

KEY POINTS: The physiological maturation of auditory hair cells and their innervation requires precise temporal and spatial control of cell differentiation. The transcription factor gata3 is essential for the earliest stages of auditory system development and for survival and synaptogenesis in auditory sensory afferent neurons. We show that during postnatal development in the mouse inner ear gata3 is required for the biophysical maturation, growth and innervation of inner hair cells; in contrast, it is required only for the survival of outer hair cells. Loss of gata3 in inner hair cells causes progressive hearing loss and accounts for at least some of the deafness associated with the human hypoparathyroidism, deafness and renal anomaly (HDR) syndrome. The results show that gata3 is critical for later stages of mammalian auditory system development where it plays distinct, complementary roles in the coordinated maturation of sensory hair cells and their innervation. ABSTRACT: The zinc finger transcription factor gata3 regulates inner ear development from the formation of the embryonic otic placode. Throughout development, gata3 is expressed dynamically in all the major cochlear cell types. Its role in afferent formation is well established but its possible involvement in hair cell maturation remains unknown. Here, we find that in heterozygous gata3 null mice (gata3(+/−)) outer hair cells (OHCs) differentiate normally but their numbers are significantly lower. In contrast, inner hair cells (IHCs) survive normally but they fail to acquire adult basolateral membrane currents, retain pre‐hearing current and efferent innervation profiles and have fewer ribbon synapses. Targeted deletion of gata3 driven by otoferlin‐cre recombinase (gata3(fl/fl)otof‐cre(+/−)) in IHCs does not affect OHCs or the number of IHC afferent synapses but it leads to a failure in IHC maturation comparable to that observed in gata3(+/−) mice. Auditory brainstem responses in gata3(fl/fl)otof‐cre(+/−) mice reveal progressive hearing loss that becomes profound by 6–7 months, whilst distortion product otoacoustic emissions are no different to control animals up to this age. Our results, alongside existing data, indicate that gata3 has specific, complementary functions in different cell types during inner ear development and that its continued expression in the sensory epithelium orchestrates critical aspects of physiological development and neural connectivity. Furthermore, our work indicates that hearing loss in human hypoparathyroidism, deafness and renal anomaly (HDR) syndrome arises from functional deficits in IHCs as well as loss of function from OHCs and both afferent and efferent neurons.