The research strategy was selected based on the following: a) the HapMap project does not provide genetic information for Xinjiang Kazakh, so we could not use the Tag-SNP specific for Kazakh in this study; and b) by sequencing the functional regions with their flanking sequences of NEDD4L in 94 Kazakh hypertensives, we found not only common and rare SNPs or mutations, both of which are considered to contribute to the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, but also novel or race-specific genetic variations. Here, NEDD4L is linked to essential hypertension.