GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:1393

CACNA1F

calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 F

protein-coding geneXp11.23Gene information

What does this gene do?

The CACNA1F gene belongs to a family of genes that provide instructions for making calcium channels. These channels, which transport positively charged calcium atoms (calcium ions) across cell membranes, play a key role in a cell's ability to generate and transmit electrical signals.

The CACNA1F gene provides instructions for making one part (the alpha-1 subunit) of a calcium channel called CaV1.4. This subunit forms the hole (pore) in the cell membrane through which calcium ions can flow. CaV1.4 channels are found in many types of cells, although they play a particularly important role in a specialized tissue at the back of the eye called the retina. Within the retina, the channels are located in light-detecting cells called photoreceptors. The retina contains two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Rods are needed for vision in low light. Cones are needed for vision in bright light, including color vision.

CaV1.4 channels play a critical role in normal vision. Studies suggest they help relay visual signals from rods and cones to other retinal cells called bipolar cells. This signaling is an essential step in the transmission of visual information from the eyes to the brain.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2024-06-21. Source review: 2024-06.

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
CACNA1F-related retinopathyMONDO:0700243 · Evaluated 2023-01-05	X-linked	DefinitiveRetina 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: 1,888
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 2,657
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 2,300
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 252
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 802
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 71

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 CACNA1F?

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 252 alleles in CACNA1F 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 CACNA1F.

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

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