OSCR

The dual molecular identity of vestibular kinocilia bridges structural and functional traits of primary and motile cilia.

Overview

Authors: Zhenhang Xu1, Amirrasoul Tavakoli2, Samadhi Kulasooriya1, Huizhan Liu1, Shu Tu1, Celia Bloom1, Yi Li1, Tirone D Johnson2, Jian Zuo1, Litao Tao1, Bechara Kachar2, David Z He1
ORCID iDs: Zhenhang Xu, Amirrasoul Tavakoli, Samadhi Kulasooriya, Huizhan Liu, Shu Tu, Yi Li, Tirone D Johnson, Jian Zuo, Litao Tao, Bechara Kachar, David Z He
  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Creighton University, Omaha, United States
  2. Laboratory of Cell Structure and Dynamics, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
Institutions: Creighton University (United States); National Institutes of Health (United States); National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (United States)
Journal: eLife, volume 14, article RP108071
Dates: published online 24 April 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC0
Identifiers: DOI 10.7554/elife.108071 · PMID 42029006 · PMCID PMC13108966 · OpenAlex W4414383259
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: human (organism), mouse (organism), zebrafish (organism), cellular / molecular (subfield)
Methods: Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Machine learning
Keywords: Mouse
MeSH: Cilia*, Hair Cells, Vestibular*, Animals, Humans, Mechanotransduction, Cellular, Mice, Single-Cell Gene Expression Analysis, Zebrafish (* major topic)
Topic: Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics (Sensory Systems, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: NIGMS NIH HHS (P20 GM139762); NIDCD NIH HHS (R01 DC016807); NIH HHS (Z01-DC000002, R01 DC016807); Intramural NIH HHS (Z01 DC000002); NCRR NIH HHS (P20 RR018788)
Citations: cited by 3 papers (Europe PMC); 97 references in the paper
Research resources: UCSF ChimeraX RRID:SCR_015872, Seurat and built-in tools (v4.3.0 RRID:SCR_016341, including Cell Ranger (v6.1.2 RRID:SCR_017344

Abstract

Vestibular hair cells (HCs) convert gravitational and head motion cues into neural signals through mechanotransduction, mediated by the hair bundle—a mechanically integrated organelle composed of stereocilia and a kinocilium. The kinocilium, a specialized form of primary cilium, remains incompletely defined in structure, molecular composition, and function. To elucidate its characteristics, we conducted single-cell RNA sequencing of adult vestibular and cochlear HCs, uncovering a selective enrichment of primary and motile cilia-associated genes in vestibular HCs, particularly those related to the axonemal repeat complex. This enrichment of orthologous axoneme-related genes was conserved in zebrafish and human vestibular HCs, indicating a shared molecular architecture. Immunostaining validated the expression of key motile cilia markers in vestibular kinocilia. Moreover, live imaging of bullfrog and mouse HCs from crista ampullaris revealed spontaneous kinociliary motion. Together, these findings define the kinocilium as a unique organelle with molecular features of primary and motile cilia and suggest its previously unknown role as an active, force-generating element within the hair bundle.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC0), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Code availability

Publicly available software, standard packages, and algorithms were used for the analysis, including Cell Ranger (v6.1.2) (RRID:SCR_017344 (https://identifiers.org/RRID:SCR_017344)), Seurat and built-in tools (v4.3.0) (RRID:SCR_016341 (https://identifiers.org/RRID:SCR_016341)), and UCSF ChimeraX (RRID:SCR_015872 (https://identifiers.org/RRID:SCR_015872), v1.6). No custom code or algorithms were used or generated.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC0), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

Raw scRNA-seq datasets of adult cochlear and vestibular hair cells have been deposited to GEO (accession number GSE283534 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE283534)).

The following dataset was generated:

Xu Z, Kulasooriya S, Liu H, He DZ. 2025. scRNA-seq transcriptomic profiles of cochlear and vestibular hair cells from adult mice [10_weeks_CBAJ] NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. GSE283534

The following previously published datasets were used:

Burns JC, Kelly MC, Hoa M, Morell RJ, Kelley MW. 2015. Single-cell RNA-Seq resolves cellular complexity in sensory organs from the neonatal inner ear. NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. GSE71982

Barta CL, Liu H, Chen L, Li Y, Giffen KP, Kramer KL, Beisel KW, He DZ. 2017. RNA-sequencing of Adult Zebrafish Inner Ear Hair Cells. NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. GSE101693

Taha JA, Alan CG. 2024. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals increased regeneration in diseased human inner ears. NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. GSE207817

Jen H-I. 2018. Transcriptomic and epigenetic regulation of hair cell regeneration in the mouse utricle and its potentiation by Atoh1. NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus. GSE121610

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC0), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 12 authors, 1 keyword, 8 MeSH terms, 5 funders, 97 references, 3 RRIDs.

Cite

This paper

Xu, Z., Tavakoli, A., Kulasooriya, S., Liu, H., Tu, S., Bloom, C., Li, Y., Johnson, T. D., Zuo, J., Tao, L., Kachar, B., & He, D. Z. (2026). The dual molecular identity of vestibular kinocilia bridges structural and functional traits of primary and motile cilia. eLife, 14, RP108071. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.108071

BibTeX

@article{xu2026dual,
author = {Xu, Zhenhang and Tavakoli, Amirrasoul and Kulasooriya, Samadhi and Liu, Huizhan and Tu, Shu and Bloom, Celia and Li, Yi and Johnson, Tirone D and Zuo, Jian and Tao, Litao and Kachar, Bechara and He, David Z},
title = {{The dual molecular identity of vestibular kinocilia bridges structural and functional traits of primary and motile cilia}},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {14},
pages = {RP108071},
publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd},
issn = {2050-084X},
doi = {10.7554/elife.108071},
url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.108071},
pmid = {42029006},
pmcid = {PMC13108966}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Xu, Zhenhang
AU - Tavakoli, Amirrasoul
AU - Kulasooriya, Samadhi
AU - Liu, Huizhan
AU - Tu, Shu
AU - Bloom, Celia
AU - Li, Yi
AU - Johnson, Tirone D
AU - Zuo, Jian
AU - Tao, Litao
AU - Kachar, Bechara
AU - He, David Z
TI - The dual molecular identity of vestibular kinocilia bridges structural and functional traits of primary and motile cilia
T2 - eLife
J2 - eLife
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/04/24
VL - 14
SP - RP108071
SN - 2050-084X
PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
DO - 10.7554/elife.108071
UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.108071
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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