GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:21406

RARS2

arginyl-tRNA synthetase 2, mitochondrial

protein-coding gene6q15Gene information

What does this gene do?

The RARS2 gene provides instructions for making an enzyme called mitochondrial arginyl-tRNA synthetase. This enzyme is active in cell structures called mitochondria. Each cell contains hundreds or thousands of mitochondria, which convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use.

Mitochondrial arginyl-tRNA synthetase interacts with a molecule called transfer RNA (tRNA). This molecule, which is a chemical cousin of DNA, helps assemble protein building blocks called amino acids into functioning proteins. To build new proteins, tRNA must collect different amino acids and then attach them to one another in the correct order. Mitochondrial arginyl-tRNA synthetase is one of several enzymes that link amino acids to tRNA. Specifically, this enzyme links the amino acid arginine to the tRNA molecule, which then incorporates it into new proteins in mitochondria.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2020-08-18. Source review: 2014-11.

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
mitochondrial diseaseMONDO:0044970 · Evaluated 2022-05-04	Autosomal recessive	DefinitiveMitochondrial Diseases 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: 1,127
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 1,907
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 1,869
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 259
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 234
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 50

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 RARS2?

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 259 alleles in RARS2 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 RARS2.

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

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