Linkage of autosomal dominant hearing loss to the short arm of chromosome 1 in two families

Hereditary hearing loss that begins early in life may be traced to a gene on chromosome 1p. Researchers studied a large Indonesian family with hereditary, progressive deafness. DNA samples were analyzed from 15 family members with hearing loss. A genetic-linkage analysis was performed to pinpoint the location of the gene for deafness. The gene was localized between D1S211 and D1S201 on chromosome 1p. Linkage analysis was then performed in American and Dutch families with hereditary hearing loss to determine if the same region on chromosome 1p was the location of the gene for deafness. In the American family, the gene was positioned on D1S255 on chromosome 1p. In the Dutch family, the gene for deafness was not located in the suspected region on chromosome 1p. Because the Indonesian and American families are of different ethnic groups, researchers suspect that the gene that causes deafness on chromosome 1p may be responsible for hereditary hearing loss in other families.