We also identified four candidate deafness genes (Ctxn3, Ccdc192, Map3k5 and Map7) within the rthm and rhme deletions in the MFFD and MEEK lines, and more study is required to identify which gene is responsible for the hearing phenotype or whether, in the case of the rthm deletion, it is one of the noncoding RNA genes that underlies the deafness and vestibular dysfunction in this line. Here, MAP7 is linked to deafness.