Human MYO7A mutations can cause a variety of conditions involving the inner ear. These include dominant and recessive non-syndromic hearing loss and syndromic conditions such as Usher syndrome. Mouse models of deafness allow us to investigate functional pathways involved in normal and abnormal hearing processes. We present two novel mouse models with mutations in the Myo7a gene with distinct ph...

EDITOR—The most common sensory deficit in humans is hearing loss, aVecting 1 in 1000 children, with approximately half of the cases having a genetic cause. The majority of these genetic causes are non-syndromic, of which approximately 75% have an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. So far, nearly 30 genes that cause non-syndromic recessive deafness (NSRD) have been located (for review see ...

The DFNB7/11 locus for autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) has been mapped to an approx. 1.5 Mb interval on human chromosome 9q13-q21. We have determined the cDNA sequence and genomic structure of a novel cochlear-expressed gene, ZNF216, that maps to the DFNB7/11 interval. The mouse orthologue of this gene maps to the murine dn (deafness) locus on mouse chromosome 19. The ZN...

Autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing loss is one of the most common monogenic diseases. It is characterized by high allelic and locus heterogeneities that make a precise diagnosis difficult. In this study, whole-exome sequencing was performed for an affected patient allowing us to identify a new frameshift mutation (c.804delG) in the Immunoglobulin-Like Domain containing Receptor-1 (ILDR1)...

H earing impairment is a common and highly heterogeneous sensory disorder. Genetic causes are thought to be responsible for more than 60% of the cases in developed countries. In the majority of cases, non-syndromic hearing impairment is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. Thirty eight different loci and 20 genes for autosomal recessive non-syndromic hearing impairment (ARNSHI) have bee...