Deafness_IsolatedAndComplex
Gene: TBX2
There is some emerging evidence for the association of TBX2 and monogenic hearing loss. Several reported individuals with de novo microdeletions encompassing TBX2 had sensorineural hearing loss as one of the symptoms (PMID: 20206336 Ballif et al., 2010; PMID: 22052739 Schönewolf-Greulich et al., 2011; PMID: 21271665 Nimmakayalu et al., 2011). TBX2 and TBX4 are suggested as strong candidate genes. However, the effect of other genes being deleted is hard to decouple.
A study by Hua et al. ( https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.18.24310488, pre-print, posted in July 2024) identified two Chinese families with late onset progressive sensorineural hearing loss. Affected members in each family were heterozygous for c.977delA p.(Asp326Alafs*42) and c.987delC p.(Ala330Argfs*38) respectively. Both variants are extremely rare and co-segregate with disease. Method: Linkage analysis + WGS.
Family 1: five generations, 21/102 individuals had hearing loss (AD inheritance). Age of onset 4-40 years old. Monitoring at 10 year intervals showed slowly progressive auditory decline. 9 family member also exhibited spontaneous nystagmus (onset 0-5 years). Caveat: Six other shared variants were identified in RKD3, DYNC2LI1, FAHD2A, OR5K3, TBX2, ZNF135 - autosomal dominant pattern.
Family 2: 4/14 members had hearing loss, proband had severe hearing loss with onset before 5yo; patient II.6 had late onset hearing loss (onset at 26-30yo) with nystagmus observed in childhood.
Functional data:
Tbx2 is essential for inner hair cell (IHC) differentiation in mice. Conditional Tbx2 knockout causes embryonic IHCs differentiate as outer hair cells (OHCs). Both inner and outer hair cells are required for hearing (PMID: 35508658 Garcia-Anoveros et al., 2022). Tbx2-/- knockout mouse embryos exhibit lethal cardiovascular defects (PMID: 15459098 Harrelson et a., 2004). In https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.18.24310488, Tbx2-/- mice were also embryonic lethal. Heterozygous Tbx2+/- mice had normal Auditory Brainstem Response thresholds at day 70. They started showing signs of hearing loss at day 100, and they exhibited severe hearing loss at day 150 – consistent with late-onset hearing loss reported in some patients. Interestingly, p.(Asp326Alafs*42) knock-in mice did not show any signs of hearing loss.
Sources: Expert ReviewCreated: 25 Sep 2025, 1:31 p.m.
Mode of inheritance
MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
Phenotypes
Hearing loss disorder, MONDO:0005365, TBX2-related
Publications
Gene: tbx2 has been classified as Amber List (Moderate Evidence).
Gene: tbx2 has been classified as Amber List (Moderate Evidence).
gene: TBX2 was added gene: TBX2 was added to Deafness_IsolatedAndComplex. Sources: Expert Review Mode of inheritance for gene: TBX2 was set to MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted Publications for gene: TBX2 were set to 20206336; 22052739; 21271665; https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.18.24310488 Phenotypes for gene: TBX2 were set to Hearing loss disorder, MONDO:0005365, TBX2-related Review for gene: TBX2 was set to AMBER