A canine BCAN microdeletion associated with episodic falling syndrome

► Episodic falling is a canine autosomal recessive paroxysmal hypertonicity disorder. ► We mapped the episodic falling locus to a 3.48 Mb region on canine chromosome 7. ► We found a novel microdeletion in BCAN encoding the proteoglycan brevican. ► Multiplex PCR and MLPA tests can distinguish normal, carrier and affected animals. ► BCAN mutations may underlie human exercise-induced hypertonicity disorders.