Whole exome sequencing identified mutations causing hearing loss in five consanguineous Pakistani families.

Background: Hearing loss is the most common sensory defect, and it affects over 6% of the population worldwide. Approximately 50-60% of hearing loss patients are attributed to genetic causes. Currently, more than 100 genes have been reported to cause non-syndromic hearing loss. It is possible and efficient to screen all potential disease-causing genes for hereditary hearing loss by whole exome sequencing (WES).

Methods: We collected 5 consanguineous pedigrees from Pakistan with hearing loss and applied WES in selected patients for each pedigree, followed by bioinformatics analysis and Sanger validation to identify the causal genes.

Results: Variants in 7 genes were identified and validated in these pedigrees. We identified single candidate variant for 3 pedigrees: GIPC3 (c.937 T > C), LOXHD1 (c.6136G > A) and TMPRSS3 (c.941 T > C). The remaining 2 pedigrees each contained two candidate variants: TECTA (c.4045G > A) and MYO15A (c.3310G > T and c.9913G > C) for one pedigree and DFNB59 (c.494G > A) and TRIOBP (c.1952C > T) for the other pedigree. The candidate variants were validated in all available samples by Sanger sequencing.

Conclusion: The candidate variants in hearing-loss genes were validated to be co-segregated in the pedigrees, and they may indicate the aetiologies of hearing loss in such patients. We also suggest that WES may be a suitable strategy for hearing-loss gene screening in clinical detection.