Novel GRHL3 Variants in a South African Cohort With Cleft Lip and Palate.

Objective: The etiology of cleft palate (CP) is poorly understood compared with that of cleft lip with or without palate (CL ± P). Recently, variants in Grainyhead like transcription factor 3 () were reported to be associated with a risk for CP in European and some African populations including Nigeria, Ghana, and Ethiopia. In order to identify genetic variants that may further explain the etiology of CP, we sequenced in a South African population to determine if rare variants in are associated with the presence of syndromic or nonsyndromic CP.