GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:4195

GCK

glucokinase

protein-coding gene7p13Gene information

What does this gene do?

The GCK gene provides instructions for making a protein called glucokinase. This protein plays an important role in the breakdown of sugars (particularly glucose) in the body. Glucokinase is primarily found in the liver and in beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cells produce and release (secrete) the hormone insulin, which helps regulate blood glucose levels by controlling how much glucose is passed from the bloodstream into cells to be used as energy. Glucokinase acts as a sensor, recognizing when the level of glucose in the blood rises and helping stimulate the release of insulin from beta cells to control it. In the liver, glucokinase helps determine when excess glucose should be taken in and converted to glycogen, which is a major source of stored energy in the body.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2023-07-19. Source review: 2020-07.

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
monogenic diabetesMONDO:0015967 · Evaluated 2026-06-02	Semidominant	DefinitiveMonogenic Diabetes Gene Curation Expert Panel
hyperinsulinism due to glucokinase deficiencyMONDO:0011236 · Evaluated 2026-06-17	Autosomal dominant	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: 1,444
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 3,635
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 3,572
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 714
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 373
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 143

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 GCK?

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 714 alleles in GCK 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 GCK.

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

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