Most individuals with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) are heterozygous for dominant mutations in one of the genes that encode the chains of type I collagen. Each of the more than 30 mutations characterized to date has been unique to the affected member(s) of the family. We have determined that two individuals with a progressive deforming variety of OI, OI type III, have the same new dominant mutation [alpha 1(I)gly154 to arg] and that two unrelated infants with perinatal lethal OI, OI type II, share a second new dominant mutation [alpha 1(I)gly1003 to ser]. These mutations occurred at CpG dinucleotides, in a manner consistent with deamination of a methylated cytosine residue, and raise the possibility that CpG dinucleotides are common sites of recurrent mutations in collagen genes. Further, these findings confirm that the OI type-III phenotype, previously thought to be inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, can result from new dominant mutations in the COL1A1 gene of type-I collagen.