GENE REFERENCE / HGNC:10524

SALL1

spalt like transcription factor 1

protein-coding gene16q12.1Gene information

What does this gene do?

The SALL1 gene is part of a group of related genes that provide instructions for making proteins involved in the formation of tissues and organs before birth. These proteins are transcription factors, which means they attach (bind) to specific regions of DNA and help control the activity of particular genes.

The SALL1 protein helps turn off (repress) gene activity by interacting with other proteins that alter how tightly regions of DNA are packaged. This process, known as chromatin remodeling, is one way gene expression is regulated during development; typically, when DNA is tightly packed, gene expression is lower than when DNA is loosely packed. By controlling gene activity, the SALL1 protein plays an important role in development of the hands (particularly the thumbs), ears, anus, kidneys, and other parts of the body before birth.

Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Source publication: 2025-09-26. Source review: 2020-06.

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
Townes-Brocks syndrome 1MONDO:0054581 · Evaluated 2026-03-20	Autosomal dominant	DefinitiveSyndromic Disorders 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: 850
Submissions for variants in or overlapping this gene: 1,460
Submissions explicitly reporting this gene: 1,379
Alleles reported pathogenic / likely pathogenic: 138
VariationIDs with uncertain significance: 391
VariationIDs with conflicting classifications: 62

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 SALL1?

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 138 alleles in SALL1 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 SALL1.

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

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