Abstract
We studied a consanguineous family (Family A) from the island of Newfoundland with an autosomal recessive form of prelingual, profound, nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss. A genome-wide scan mapped the deafness trait to 10q21-22 (max LOD score of 4.0; D10S196) and fine mapping revealed a 16 Mb ancestral haplotype in deaf relatives. The PCDH15 gene was mapped within the critical region and was an interesting candidate because truncating mutations cause Usher syndrome type IF (USH1F) and two missense mutations have been previously associated with isolated deafness (DFNB23). Sequencing of the PCDH15 gene revealed 33 sequencing variants. Three of these variants were homozygous exclusively in deaf siblings but only one of them was not seen in ethnically matched controls. This novel c.1583 T>A transversion predicts an amino-acid substitution of a valine with an aspartic acid at codon 528 (V528D). Like the two DFNB23 mutations, the V528D mutation in Family A occurs in a highly conserved extracellular cadherin (EC) domain of PCDH15 and is predicted to be more deleterious than the previously identified DFNB23 missense mutations (R134G and G262D). Physical assessment, vestibular and visual function testing in deaf adults ruled out syndromic deafness because of Usher syndrome. This study validates the DFNB23 designation and supports the hypothesis that missense mutations in conserved motifs of PCDH15 cause nonsyndromic hearing loss. This emerging genotype–phenotype correlation in USH1F is similar to that in several other USH1 genes and cautions against a prognosis of a dual sensory loss in deaf children found to be homozygous for hypomorphic mutations at the USH1F locus.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Family A for participation in the study; Herb Martin, Wendy Martin, Andree MacMillan, and Anne Duff for clinical assistance; Dr Claire-Neville Smith for her early interest in the education of deaf children; and summer student Sonny Collis. This study was supported by CFI New Investigator Award (TLY-project 9384), the Newfoundland Cancer Treatment Research Foundation, Memorial University IRIF award, CIHR operating grant (MOP-66974-TLY), the Janeway Children's Hospital Foundation, and the NIH (R01 DC01076) (M-CK). TLY holds a CIHR/Regional Partnerships Program New Investigator Award (RSH-72586) for research into deafness.
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Doucette, L., Merner, N., Cooke, S. et al. Profound, prelingual nonsyndromic deafness maps to chromosome 10q21 and is caused by a novel missense mutation in the Usher syndrome type IF gene PCDH15. Eur J Hum Genet 17, 554–564 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2008.231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2008.231
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