GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:1353

C8B

complement C8 beta chain

protein-coding gene1p32.2Gene information

What does this gene do?

The C8B gene provides instructions for making one piece, the beta subunit, of a protein complex called complement component 8. To form this complex, the beta subunit interacts with another piece made up of the alpha subunit (produced from the C8A gene) and the gamma subunit (produced from the C8G gene), which are linked.

Complement component 8 aids in a part of the body's immune response known as the complement system. The complement system is a group of proteins that work together to destroy foreign invaders, trigger inflammation, and remove debris from cells and tissues. Complement component 8 combines with several other complement proteins to form the membrane attack complex (MAC), which inserts itself in the outer membrane of bacterial cells. This complex creates a hole (pore) in the membrane, which kills the bacterium. This part of the immune response appears to be especially important for fighting infection by bacteria in the Neisseria genus.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2020-08-18. Source review: 2015-12.

ClinGen reviews

We found no matching ClinGen review in the data used here. This does not rule out a link between the gene and a condition.

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: 468
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 680
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 658
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 44
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 220
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 9

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 C8B?

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 44 alleles in C8B 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 C8B.

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

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