Mutations in the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene have been identified to be associated with deafness. Among these, the A to G transition at position 1555 is one of the most common pathogenic mutations associated with hearing loss. In order to evaluate the allele frequency of this mutation in infants with hearing loss, the A1555G mutation was screened in 300 deaf children and 100 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Consequently, 5 patients with this mutation were identified, whereas the mutation was absent in healthy controls. Among the patients with the mutation, only one had an obvious family history of hearing impairment. Notably, this pedigree manifested a high penetrance of deafness. In particular, the penetrance of deafness was 80 and 40%, when the aminoglycoside antibiotics (AmAn) was included or excluded, respectively. Clinical evaluation of this family exhibited a wide degree of hearing loss. Furthermore, screening for the complete mitochondrial genes revealed the occurrence of A1555G and transfer (t)RNAThr T15943C mutations, together with other genetic variations belonging to East Asian haplogroup C. Notably, the T15943C mutation, located at the T arm of tRNAThr, could disrupt the 63T-55A base-pairing and impair tRNA metabolism. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the combination of A1555G and T15943C mutations may result in mitochondrial dysfunction that is responsible for deafness. Screening for A1555G, as well as other potential pathogenic mutations in the mitochondrial genome, is critical for clinical diagnosis and prevention of hearing impairment.
Keywords: A1555G; T15943C; deafness; infant; mitochondrial mutations; transfer RNA metabolism.