Background: The hypoparathyroidism, deafness and renal dysplasia (HDR) syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder primarily caused by GATA3 gene mutation. We report here a case that both of a Chinese boy and his father had HDR syndrome which caused by a novel mutation of GATA3. Methods: Polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing was performed to detect the exons of the GATA3 gene for mutation analysis. Results: Sequence analysis of GATA3 revealed a heterozygous nonsense mutation in this family: a mutation of GATA3 at exon 2 (c.515C >A) that resulted in a premature stop at codon 172 (p.S172X) with a loss of two zinc fi nger domains. Conclusion: We identifi ed a novel nonsense mutation which will expand the spectrum of HDR-associated GATA3 mutations.