Ocular albinism in a male with del (6)(q13-q15): candidate region for autosomal recessive ocular albinism?

We describe a boy with an interstitial deletion of 6(q13-q15) and include "coarse" facial features, upslanting palpebral fissures, thin vermilion border of the upper lip, elongated philtrum, developmental delay, and profound hypotonia. The child's eye findings, pedigree, paucity of maternal ocular changes, and lack of melanin macroglobules in the skin suggest that this individual's phenotype is clinically similar to that of autosomal recessive ocular albinism. Though it is possible that this deletion and his ophthalmic disorder are coincidental, we postulate that the ocular albinism may be due to hemizygosity for a paternally derived ocular albinism gene located on chromosome 6 in the region q13-q15. This patient's deletion is secondary to a recombination of a maternal intrachromosomal inverted insertion of this region. Of the 7 reported 6q1 deletions, this is the only case that is due to a familial chromosome rearrangement.