Newly discovered families give
impetus to genetics research

By Dennis Drayna, Ph.D.


Recent research in Cameroon, West Africa, has uncovered the
existence of an entire group of previously unknown families in which alt text
stuttering occurs as a simple inherited trait. Through the
cooperation of the Speak Clear Association of Cameroon (SCAC) and the Stuttering Home Page maintained at Mankato State University, researchers had previously identified a single Cameroonian family of 100 individuals, 45 of whom stutter.

This unusual family motivated more field studies in Cameroon. These studies have now shown that as remarkable as this family is, they’re not unique. Researchers have now identified 4 additional large families, ranging in size from 25 to 80 individuals, and in all
of these families, almost half of the individuals stutter. All the families found so far come from a single region in Cameroon’s Northwest Province, suggesting there might be some common inherited factor at work in
these families.

“These families provide hope that we’ll be able to identify the
gene that appears to be at work to cause stuttering in these
families’ said Dr. Dennis Drayna, who works at the National Institute
on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, in Bethesda,
Maryland.’Even though most stuttering doesn’t seem to occur in such
large family groups, finding the cause of stuttering in these
families may provide important clues to the identity of other causes
of this puzzling disorder’, he said.

This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health.