GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:360

AIRE

autoimmune regulator

protein-coding gene21q22.3Gene information

What does this gene do?

The AIRE gene provides instructions for making a protein called the autoimmune regulator. This protein is active primarily in the thymus, which is an organ located behind the breastbone that plays an important role in immune system function. The thymus prepares immune cells called T cells for their role in fighting infection; this process is called thymic education.

For a person to remain healthy, immune system cells such as T cells must be able to identify and destroy potentially harmful invaders (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) while sparing the body's normal tissues. The autoimmune regulator protein plays an important role in this process by helping T cells distinguish the body's own proteins from those of foreign invaders. When this system malfunctions, the immune system's ability to distinguish between the body's proteins and foreign invaders is impaired, and it may attack the body's own tissues and organs. This abnormal reaction is called autoimmunity. In the thymus, the autoimmune regulator protein destroys T cells that otherwise would cause autoimmune damage.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2020-08-18. Source review: 2016-10.

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
autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1MONDO:0009411 · Evaluated 2024-11-07	Autosomal recessive	DefinitiveMonogenic Diabetes 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: 1,483
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 2,643
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 2,523
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 271
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 461
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 43

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 AIRE?

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 271 alleles in AIRE 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 AIRE.

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

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