Human olfactory marker protein maps close to tyrosinase and is a candidate gene for Usher syndrome type I.

Olfactory marker protein (OMP) shows olfactory neuron-specific expression in rodents. We recently reported tight linkage on mouse chromosome 7 of OMP to the shaker-1 deafness mutant, between the tyrosinase and globin loci. Here we isolate and map the human homologue. Our results show that OMP maps immediately centromeric to tyrosinase on the long arm of human chromosome 11. Genetic linkage to this region has recently been established for Usher Syndrome Type I, an autosomal recessive blindness and deafness disorder and a putative homologue of the shaker-1 mutant. OMP is thus a candidate gene for both congenital deafness defects.