title: Apparent digenic inheritance of Waardenburg syndrome type 2 (WS2) and autosomal recessive ocular albinism (AROA).
abstract: Waardenburg syndrome (WS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disease accounting for >2% of the congenitally deaf population. It is characterized by deafness in association with pigmentary anomalies and various defects of neural crest-derived tissues. At least four types are recognized (WS1, WS2, WS3 and WS4) on the basis of clinical and genetic criteria. Two previously described families seemed to delineate a new subtype characterized by WS2 in conjunction with ocular albinism (OA). Since mutations in the MITF gene are responsible for some instances of WS2, we screened for mutations in one of the WS2-OA families and discovered a 1 bp deletion in exon 8 of MITF. OA previously has been associated with compound heterozygosity for a mutant TYR allele and the TYR(R402Q) allele, a functionally significant polymorphism that is associated with moderately reduced tyrosinase catalytic activity. In this family, all of the individuals with the OA phenotype are either homozygous or heterozygous for TYR(R402Q), and heterozyous for the 1 bp deletion in MITF This suggests that the WS2-OA phenotype may result from digenic interaction between a gene for a transcription factor (MITF) and a gene that it regulates (TYR).
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. morellr@helix.nih.gov
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morell
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Spritz
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pierpont
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Asher
mesh_terms: D016117:Albinism, Ocular / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D003638:Deafness / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D006801:Humans; D007499:Iris Diseases / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D051739:Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D010375:Pedigree; D010859:Pigmentation Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014849:Waardenburg Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C497234:MITF protein, human; D051739:Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase