A Spanish sporadic case of deafness-dystonia (Mohr-Tranebjaerg) syndrome with a novel mutation in the gene encoding TIMM8a, a component of the mitochondrial protein translocase complexes.
We describe a sporadic 42-year-old man with MTS presenting with postlingual deafness, adult-onset progressive dystonia with marked arm tremor, mild spasticity of the legs, and visual disturbance due to a novel mutation (g to a transition at the invariant gt of the 5' splice donor site of exon 1) in the DDP1 gene.
Mutations in the X-linked deafness-dystonia peptide 1 (DDP1) gene cause Mohr-Tranebjaerg syndrome (MTS), a rare form of deafness associated with dystonia.
The clinical and neuropathological abnormalities associated with mutations in the TIMM8a gene support that this X-linked deafness-dystonia-optic neuropathy syndrome is an example of progressive neurodegeneration due to mutations in a nuclear gene necessary for some, yet unknown mitochondrial transport function.