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A NOVEL DFNB1 DELETION ALLELE SUPPORTS THE EXISTENCE OF A DISTANT CIS-REGULATORY REGION THAT CONTROLS GJB2 AND GJB6 EXPRESSION
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A NOVEL DFNB1 DELETION ALLELE SUPPORTS THE EXISTENCE OF A DISTANT CIS-REGULATORY REGION THAT CONTROLS GJB2 AND GJB6 EXPRESSION

Ellen Wilch, Hela Azaiez, Rachel A Fisher, Jill Elfenbein, Alessandra Murgia, Ralf Birkenhäger, Hanno Bolz, Sueli Matilde Silva Costa, Ignacio del Castillo, Thomas Haaf, …
Clinical genetics, Vol.78(3), pp.267-274
09/2010
DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0004.2010.01387.x
PMCID: PMC2919588
PMID: 20236118
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-0004.2010.01387.xView
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Eleven affected members of a large German-American family segregating recessively inherited, congenital, non-syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) were found to be homozygous for the common 35delG mutation of GJB2 , the gene encoding the gap junction protein Connexin 26. Surprisingly, four additional family members with bilateral profound SNHL carried only a single 35delG mutation. Previously, we demonstrated reduced expression of both GJB2 and GJB6 mRNA from the allele carried in trans with that bearing the 35delG mutation in these four persons. Using array comparative genome hybridization (arrayCGH), we have now identified on this allele a deletion of 131.4 kb whose proximal breakpoint lies more than 100 kb upstream of the transcriptional start sites of GJB2 and GJB6 . This deletion, del(chr13:19,837,344-19,968,698), segregates as a completely penetrant DFNB1 allele in this family. It is not present in 528 persons with SNHL and monoallelic mutation of GJB2 or GJB6 , nor have we identified any other candidate pathogenic copy number variation by arrayCGH in a subset of 10 such persons. Characterization of distant GJB2/GJB6 cis -regulatory regions evidenced by this allele may be required to find the ‘missing’ DFNB1 mutations that are believed to exist.
Connexin 26 gene expression regulation sensorineural hearing loss sequence deletion GJB2 DFNB1 GJB6 connexin 30

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