<i>GJB2</i> Mutations and Genotype-Phenotype Correlation in 335 Patients from Germany with Nonsyndromic Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Evidence for Additional Recessive Mutations Not Detected by Current Methods

We report on 335 patients (319 families) with mild-to-profound nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss. We identified 178 mutated <i>GJB2</i> alleles representing 29 different sequence changes (including 3 novel mutations: Q7P, N14D, H100Q), and 2 alleles with the deletion del(GJB6-D13S1830) of the <i>GJB6</i> gene. Eleven <i>GJB2</i> mutations (119 mutated alleles) were truncating (T), and 18 mutations (59 alleles) were nontruncating (NT). Biallelic <i>GJB2</i> mutations were found in 71 patients (21.2%; 67 families; 25 different genotypes). Audiograms of 62 patients (56 families) with biallelic <i>GJB2</i> mutations typically ind…