GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:129

ACTA1

actin alpha 1, skeletal muscle

protein-coding gene1q42.13Gene information

What does this gene do?

The ACTA1 gene provides instructions for making a protein called skeletal alpha (α)-actin, which is part of the actin protein family. Actin proteins are important for cell movement and the tensing of muscle fibers (muscle contraction). These proteins also help maintain the cytoskeleton, which is the structural framework that determines cell shape and organizes cell contents.

Skeletal α-actin plays an important role in skeletal muscles, which are muscles that the body uses for movement. Within skeletal muscle cells, skeletal α-actin is an essential component of structures called sarcomeres. Sarcomeres are composed of thin filaments made up of actin and thick filaments made up of another protein called myosin. Attachment (binding) and release of the overlapping thick and thin filaments allows them to move relative to each other so that the muscles can contract.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2023-03-03. Source review: 2012-04.

ClinGen reviews

ClinGen reviews the evidence linking a particular gene to a condition. Each rating below describes the strength of that link. It does not classify a variant in your DNA file.

Condition	Inheritance	Evidence
alpha-actinopathyMONDO:0100084 · Evaluated 2024-02-26	Autosomal recessive	DefinitiveCongenital Myopathies and Myasthenic Syndromes Gene Curation Expert Panel
alpha-actinopathyMONDO:0100084 · Evaluated 2024-02-26	Autosomal dominant	DefinitiveCongenital Myopathies and Myasthenic Syndromes Gene Curation Expert Panel

ClinVar records

These numbers show what has been submitted to ClinVar. They cannot tell you how likely you are to have a condition.

Submitted alleles: 707
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 1,146
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 1,068
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 250
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 222
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 25

The rows count different things: alleles, submissions or VariationIDs. Their categories can overlap, so do not add them together. Pathogenic/likely pathogenic counts exclude structural variants that merely overlap a gene. A dash in the source means “not reported,” not zero.

NCBI produces the gene-summary file each week using counts recorded at the start of the month. The numbers may differ from those on the live ClinVar website. Read the field definitions ↗

View this gene in ClinVar ↗

YOUR DNA FILE

Can your DNA file tell you about ACTA1?

From a DNA test kit (such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA or MyHeritage). These kits check a fixed list of about 600,000 to 700,000 positions across your whole genome. ClinVar lists 250 alleles in ACTA1 reported as pathogenic or likely pathogenic. A kit checks only some of these positions, and often none of them.

From whole genome sequencing (a VCF file). Sequencing reads most of your genome. Your file lists the places where your DNA differs from the reference genome. Some regions are hard to sequence, including parts of some genes that have near-identical copies elsewhere, and a VCF file does not record which positions were read well.

If a variant is not in your file, that does not mean you don’t have it.

What BioDecode checks

BioDecode compares every variant in your file with ClinVar, on your own computer. For each match, it shows the ClinVar classification, the review status and the condition it was reported for. Your file is not uploaded.

A ClinVar classification applies to one particular variant and the condition it was reported for. It does not tell you about other variants in ACTA1.

BioDecode cannot fill gaps in your test, diagnose a condition or replace clinical testing.

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