Plays a key role to hearing function. Required for normal organization and maintenance of the stereocilia bundle. High expression in utricle, saccule and lagena of the inner ear. Expression is restricted to hair cells. First detected at 18 hours post fertilization (hpf), a stage when the otic placode begins to form the otic vesicle in zebrafish, and then increases throughout development. Depletion of clrn2 using CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing induces reduced response after sound stimulation. Furthermore, clrn2 crispants show disrupted hair bundle structure and fewer hair cells compared to controls. Belongs to the clarin family.