Fig. 5: Plasticity of utricular supporting cells after TRULI treatment.
a A volcano plot visualizes the genes differentially expressed after 5 days of TRULI treatment of murine utricles followed by 5 days drug withdrawal (|log2(fold change)| > 1; padj < 0.05). The subset of hair-cell genes most upregulated after TRULI treatment compared to control is labeled. All the RNA-seq data are available through GEO (GSE148528). b Gene-ontology analysis performed with DAVID software demonstrates that terms associated with hair-cell differentiation and function are the most enriched in the genes upregulated by TRULI. c In representative examples of wholemount utricular explants after 5 days of TRULI treatment followed by 5 days drug withdrawal, immunolabeling for Pou4f3 (green) and Myo7a (red) depicts hair cells. New sensory receptors formed by proliferation of their precursors, supporting cells, are identified by EdU-incorporation (white) and are found only after TRULI treatment. Nuclei are labeled with DAPI. d The total number of hair cells per utricle does not change after TRULI treatment (p = 0.7097 by a Student’s t-test; n = 4 for controls and n = 5 for TRULI-treated animals, mean ± SEM).
