in the affected families is consistent with the autosomal pattern of inheritance. In contrast, in the 10 families without mutations in MKRN3, all affected members were female, an incidence that is similar to that reported previously10 (Fig. S1 and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix). Screening for mutations of MKRN3 in sporadic cases of central precocious puberty, which affects primarily girls, will add information about the role of this gene in pubertal timing. The identification of mutations in MKRN3 in families of diverse ancestry shows that the effects of MKRN3 mutations in central precocious puberty are generalizable and are not restricted to a specific ethnic group. It is possible that Families D and E are distantly related; we have neither confirmed nor excluded this possibility.
