Objective To examine if there is any association between myopia and genetic variations in the early growth response 1 (EGR1) and crystallin alpha A (CRYAA) genes.Methods Genomic DNA was collected from 2870 unrelated individuals,including 1052 university students without myopia (NC group),615 university students with moderate myopia,640 university students with high myopia,and 563 unrelated patients with early onset high myopia.Three tag SNPs,rs872331 and rs3788061 in CRYAA as well as rs11743810 in EGR1,were genotyped by restricted fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and cycle sequencing.The results from the myopes and controls were compared with a chi-square test.Results No statistically significant difference was found for genotypes or allele frequencies of the three tag SNPs between myopes and controls (rs11743810:P=0.700,0.922; rs872331:P=0.377,0.166; rs3788061:P=0444,0.303).These results were not affected when each myopia group was compared to the control group respectively.Conclusion No evidence was found to support the association between myopia and variations in EGR1 and CRYAA.Unlike the observations in experimentally induced myopia in animals,EGR1 may not play a major role in the predisposition to myopia in humans.