BACKGROUND Genetic tests for hereditary hearing loss inform clinical management of patients and can provide the first step in the development of therapeutics. However, comprehensive genetic tests for deafness genes by Sanger sequencing is extremely expensive and time-consuming. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology is advantageous for genetic diagnosis of heterogeneous diseases that invol...

The molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic exocytosis in the hair cell, the auditory and vestibular receptor cell, are not well understood. Otoferlin, a C2 domain-containing Ca2+-binding protein, has been implicated as having a role in vesicular release. Mutations in the OTOF gene cause nonsyndromic deafness in humans, and OTOF knock-out mice are deaf. In the present study, we generated otofe...

Mutations of SLC26A4 cause an enlarged vestibular aqueduct, nonsyndromic deafness, and deafness as part of Pendred syndrome. SLC26A4 encodes pendrin, an anion exchanger located in the cochlea, thyroid, and kidney. The goal of the present study was to determine whether developmental delays, possibly mediated by systemic or local hypothyroidism, contribute to the failure to develop hearing in mic...

OBJECTIVES To clinically characterize a family with nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss linked to the DFNA25 gene and to assess whether mitochondrial mutations influence the penetrance of the phenotype. DESIGN Longitudinal clinical and basic science molecular genetic study. SETTING Academic medical center and molecular genetic research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS Members of a family with...

Unconventional myosins have been associated with hearing loss in humans, mice, and zebrafish. Mutations in myosin VI cause both recessive and dominant forms of nonsyndromic deafness in humans and deafness in Snell's waltzer mice associated with abnormal fusion of hair cell stereocilia. Although myosin VI has been implicated in diverse cellular processes such as vesicle trafficking and epithelia...

Mutations in whirlin cause either Usher syndrome type II (USH2), a deafness-blindness disorder, or nonsyndromic deafness. The molecular basis for the variable disease expression is unknown. We show here that only the whirlin long isoform, distinct from a short isoform by virtue of having two N-terminal PDZ domains, is expressed in the retina. Both long and short isoforms are expressed in the in...

Actin isoform specific mutations have been identified as causes for various human diseases. These include twelve missense mutations in γ-nonmuscle actin leading to early onset autosomal dominate nonsyndromic hearing loss and twenty two missense mutations in α-smooth muscle actin leading to thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections (TAAD). The molecular mechanisms leading to these human patholog...

background: kallmann syndrome (kal s) is an isolated form of hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism in combination with a defect in smell sensation. depending on the genetic form of the disease, a number of non-reproductive, non-olfactory abnormalities may also be existent. in the present report, we describe a male with kal s associated with hearing loss, and the successful treatment of his sexual and ...

We read with interest the paper by Propst et al.1 concerning temporal bone imaging by computed tomography (CT) in patients with GJB2-related deafness. The GJB2 gene, encoding the connexin 26 protein, which is involved in gap junction formation, has been found to be the most common cause of autosomal recessive nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in numerous world populations.2 Several...