A novel frameshift mutation (141delT) in exon 1 of the 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21) in a patient with the salt wasting form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Mutation in brief no. 255. Online.
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a common autosomal recessive disease with a wide range of clinical manifestation. In 90-95% of the cases it is caused by 21-hydroxylase deficiency (OMIM #201910) due to mutations of the CYP21 gene (GDB Accession #M12792). In most cases the CYP21-inactivating point mutations are transferred by apparent gene conversions from CYP21P to CYP21. In only a few cases point mutations have been described, which are not present in the pseudogene. Using Southern blot analysis and DNA sequencing we have identified a novel mutation (141delT) of the CYP21 gene in a patient suffering from the salt wasting form of CAH. This results in a premature termination of a truncated protein at amino acid position 51 (L51X), which is likely to result in an enzyme with no activity. This novel mutation has not been reported to occur in the CYP21P alleles and it was not found in the CYP21P alleles in this CAH family.