Patent ID: 8119344

Claim:
A method of identifying a subject at risk for developing non-syndromic hearing impairment (NSHI) comprising: obtaining a sample of DNA from a subject; detecting in said sample of DNA allelic forms of a first polymorphism in gap junction beta 2 (GJB2) gene of chromosome 13 at position −228, said position located in a promoter region of the GJB2 gene; and identifying a subject having a homozygous “C” genotype for a polymorphism at position −288 of the GJB2 gene as a subject who is at increased risk for NSHI as compared to a subject with no “C” genotype at that position, said polymorphism at position −288 of the GJB2 gene comprised within a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 8, SEQ ID NO: 10, SEQ ID NO: 12, SEQ ID NO: 16, SEQ ID NO: 20, SEQ ID NO: 24, SEQ ID NO: 28, SEQ ID NO: 38, SEQ ID NO: 48, SEQ ID NO: 68, SEQ ID NO: 72, SEQ ID NO: 73, SEQ ID NO: 74, and sequences that are complementary to said sequences.