About the Authors

Annalisa Buniello

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Rachel E. Hardisty-Hughes

Affiliation MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Johanna C. Pass

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Eva Bober

Affiliation Max-Planck-Institute for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany

Richard J. Smith

Current address: University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Affiliation MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Karen P. Steel

karen.steel@kcl.ac.uk

Affiliations Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Designed the experiments and carried out literature searches, in situ hybridisation, immunohistochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR, western blot, whole mount fluorescence, paintfilling, anatomical investigation and data analyses: AB. Analysed the behavior, made the 3D reconstruction of the inner ear and mapped the mutation: RHH. Provided the Hmx3KO mice and contributed to expression analyses: EB. Performed the genotyping and the neo counting: JCP. Carried out preliminary electrophysiological and anatomical investigation: RJS. Designed the research, obtained the funding, carried out electrophysiology and endocochlear potential measurements and interpreted the data: KPS. Approved the paper: AB RHH JCP EB RJS KPS. Conceived and designed the experiments: AB RHH KPS. Performed the experiments: AB RHH JCP EB RJS KPS. Analyzed the data: AB KPS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KPS. Wrote the paper: AB KPS.