Heteroplasmy levels of mtDNA1555A>G mutation is positively associated with diverse phenotypes and mutation transmission in a Chinese family

The mtDNA 1555A>G mutation was considered to be one of the most common causes of aminoglycoside-induced and non-syndromic hearing loss. However, this mutation was always found in homoplasmy with high phenotypic heterogeneity. Recently this mutation in heteroplasmy has been reported in several studies. In the present study, we have collected a large Chinese family harboring heteroplasmic mtDNA 1555A>G mutation with diverse clinical phenotypes. To investigate the relationship between the mutation load and the severity of hearing loss under Eastern Asian background, we performed clinical, molecular, genetic and phylogenic analysis. This pedigree was characterized by coexistence of eight subjects with homoplasmic mutation and ten subjects with various degrees of heteroplasmy, and the results suggested that there was a strong correlation between the mutation load and the severity/age-onset of hearing loss (r=0.758, p<0.001). We noticed that the mutation level of offspring was associated with their mothers' in this pedigree, which indicated that maybe exist a regular pattern during the process of the heteroplasmic transmission. In addition, analysis of the complete mtDNA genome of this family revealed that it belonged to Eastern Asian haplogroup B4C1. In addition, a rare homoplasmic mtDNA 9128T>C variant was identified, it located at a strictly conserved site of mtDNA ATP6 gene.