AG Göpfert

We study the biomechanical, cellular, and molecular mechanisms that bring about hearing using the ears of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and other insects as model systems.

Among terrestrial animals, sensitive hearing is only widespread within two major groups, vertebrates and insects. The ears of both groups have evolved independently and display different anatomies, yet evidence is accumulating that the mechanosensory cells that mediate hearing in vertebrates and insects are related: vertebrate hair cells and insect chordotonal neurons share conserved molecular modules for mechanosensory cell formation and function and operate in equivalent ways; like vertebrate hair cells, the mechanosensory neurons that mediate insect hearing are motile and generate motions to actively boost the minute, sound-induced vibrations which they transduce. This mechanical feedback, which is also known as the cochlear amplifier, is the topic of our work. By profiting form experimental advantages provided by insect hearing organs and by linking biophysical, neurobiological, and genetic approaches, we are analyzing the mechanism that promote active amplification in hearing on the systemic (auditory performance), cellular (auditory neurons) and molecular (transduction and motor machineries) levels.