Criteria Specification (CSpec) Registry is intended to provide access to the Criteria Specifications used and applied by ClinGen Variant Curation Expert Panels and biocurators in the classification of variants.
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Criteria & Strength Specifications
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PVS1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Null variant (nonsense, frameshift, canonical +/−1 or 2 splice sites, initiation codon, single or multi-exon deletion) in a gene where loss of function (LOF) is a known mechanism of disease.
Caveats: • Beware of genes where LOF is not a known disease mechanism (e.g. GFAP, MYH7). • Use caution interpreting LOF variants at the extreme 3’ end of a gene. • Use caution with splice variants that are predicted to lead to exon skipping but leave the remainder of the protein intact. • Use caution in the presence of multiple transcripts. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Large heteroplasmic mtDNA deletions, where at least one gene is completely deleted Strong
Assessment of small deletions, nonsense, and frameshift variants in protein-coding genes should follow established guidelines (Abou Tayoun et al., 2018) Moderate
Assessment of small deletions, nonsense, and frameshift variants in protein-coding genes should follow established guidelines (Abou Tayoun et al., 2018) Supporting
Assessment of small deletions, nonsense, and frameshift variants in protein-coding genes should follow established guidelines (Abou Tayoun et al., 2018) Not Applicable
Comments:
Nonsense mediated decay is not known to occur for mtDNA, however ClinGen SVI PVS1 guidelines (Abou Tayoun et al., 2018) will be utilized when applicable (see figure).
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PS1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Same amino acid change as a previously established pathogenic variant regardless of nucleotide change.
Example: Val->Leu caused by either G>C or G>T in the same codon. Caveat: Beware of changes that impact splicing rather than at the amino acid/protein level. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Applied per original ACMG/AMP guidelines Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
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PS2 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
De novo (both maternity and paternity confirmed) in a patient with the disease and no family history.
Note: Confirmation of paternity only is insufficient. Egg donation, surrogate motherhood, errors in embryo transfer, etc. can contribute to non-maternity. Stand Alone
Very Strong
De novo (maternity confirmed or identical full mtDNA sequence) in a patient with the disease and no family history; with weighting per ClinGen SVI guidance Strong
De novo (maternity confirmed or identical full mtDNA sequence) in a patient with the disease and no family history; with weighting per ClinGen SVI guidance Moderate
De novo (maternity confirmed or identical full mtDNA sequence) in a patient with the disease and no family history; with weighting per ClinGen SVI guidance Supporting
De novo (maternity confirmed or identical full mtDNA sequence) in a patient with the disease and no family history; with weighting per ClinGen SVI guidance Not Applicable
Comments:
Older sequencing techniques such as Sanger sequencing cannot reliably detect heteroplasmy levels below 30-50%. Current NGS techniques can typically detect heteroplasmy levels as low as 1.5%. It is recommended to test several tissues in the mother to fully assess for the presence and level of the mtDNA variant in question. Utilize ClinGen SVI recommendation for applying these criteria (https://clinicalgenome.org/site/assets/files/3461/ svi_proposal_for_de_novo_criteria_v1_0.pdf), the mitochondrial genome would best fit with Table 1 “phenotypic consistency” category of “phenotype consistent with gene but not highly specific.”
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PS3 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Well-established in vitro or in vivo functional studies supportive of a damaging effect on the gene or gene product.
Note: Functional studies that have been validated and shown to be reproducible and robust in a clinical diagnostic laboratory setting are considered the most well-established. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Functional validation is present in cybrid studies or single fiber analysis Not Applicable
Comments:
The following criteria should be met to apply:
* a biochemical deficiency must be observed in patient cell line with mtDNA variant in question.
* whether the biochemical deficiency is transferred to mutant cybrids (in the case of enzymatic deficiency, <20% activity of control or a decrease in activity that is >2 standard deviations from control mean.
* whether cybrid cells carry high mutant load (minimal 60%).
* if studies have been reproduced and are consistent.
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PS4 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
The prevalence of the variant in affected individuals is significantly increased compared to the prevalence in controls.
Note 1: Relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR), as obtained from case-control studies, is >5.0 and the confidence interval around the estimate of RR or OR does not include 1.0. See manuscript for detailed guidance. Note 2: In instances of very rare variants where case-control studies may not reach statistical significance, the prior observation of the variant in multiple unrelated patients with the same phenotype, and its absence in controls, may be used as moderate level of evidence. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Variant present in ≥16 unrelated probands Moderate
Variant present in ≥4 unrelated probands Supporting
Variant present in 2 unrelated probands in different top-level haplogroups Not Applicable
Comments:
Individuals are defined as affected if they:
* meet diagnostic criteria for one of the classic mitochondrial disease clinical syndromes (MELAS, MERRF, MIDD, NARP, Pearson, KSS, CPEO, CPEO plus, Leigh, Alpers, LHON, primary lactic acidosis).
OR
* have 1 “red flag” feature with 2 or more nonspecific features (see tables in Haas et al., 2007)
OR
* have 3 or more nonspecific features with lab abnormalities (see table in Haas et al., 2008).
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PM1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Located in a mutational hot spot and/or critical and well-established functional domain (e.g. active site of an enzyme) without benign variation.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
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PM2 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Absent from controls (or at extremely low frequency if recessive) in Exome Sequencing Project, 1000 Genomes or Exome Aggregation Consortium.
Caveat: Population data for indels may be poorly called by next generation sequencing. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Frequency <0.00002 (0.002%, 1/50,000) from controls Not Applicable
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PM3 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
For recessive disorders, detected in trans with a pathogenic variant
Note: This requires testing of parents (or offspring) to determine phase. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
Comments:
mtDNA variants are maternally inherited and not inherited in an autosomal recessive manner.
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PM4 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Protein length changes due to in-frame deletions/insertions in a non-repeat region or stop-loss variants.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Applied per original ACMG/AMP guidelines Supporting
Not Applicable
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PM5 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Novel missense change at an amino acid residue where a different missense change determined to be pathogenic has been seen before.
Example: Arg156His is pathogenic; now you observe Arg156Cys. Caveat: Beware of changes that impact splicing rather than at the amino acid/protein level. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Applied per original ACMG/AMP guidelines (protein-coding genes) Supporting
Same nucleotide position as previously established pathogenic variant in a rRNA/tRNA Not Applicable
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PM6 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Assumed de novo, but without confirmation of paternity and maternity.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Assumed de novo, but without confirmation of maternity (maternal testing done by targeted variant analysis and/or targeted gene sequencing) Strong
Assumed de novo, but without confirmation of maternity (maternal testing done by targeted variant analysis and/or targeted gene sequencing) Moderate
Assumed de novo, but without confirmation of maternity (maternal testing done by targeted variant analysis and/or targeted gene sequencing) Supporting
Assumed de novo, but without confirmation of maternity (maternal testing done by targeted variant analysis and/or targeted gene sequencing) Not Applicable
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PP1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Co-segregation with disease in multiple affected family members in a gene definitively known to cause the disease.
Note: May be used as stronger evidence with increasing segregation data. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Co-segregation with disease in 5+ maternal family members and level of heteroplasmy segregating with disease manifestations Supporting
Co-segregation with disease in 2-4 maternal family members and level of heteroplasmy segregating with disease manifestations Not Applicable
Comments:
Variant must not only segregate in maternal family members, but the level of heteroplasmy must also segregate with disease manifestations, where those individuals with more mild symptoms or appearing to be healthy have lower to undetectable levels of the variant and those more severely affected individuals and/or tissues have higher levels of the variant.
This criterion cannot be applied when a variant is present at homoplasmy in multiple family members.
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PP2 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Missense variant in a gene that has a low rate of benign missense variation and where missense variants are a common mechanism of disease.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
Comments:
mtDNA exhibits lack of recombination and a relatively high mutation rate (due to lack of histones or other protective structures) that allows for mtDNA variants to accumulate over time.
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PP3 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Multiple lines of computational evidence support a deleterious effect on the gene or gene product (conservation, evolutionary, splicing impact, etc.).
Caveat: As many in silico algorithms use the same or very similar input for their predictions, each algorithm should not be counted as an independent criterion. PP3 can be used only once in any evaluation of a variant. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Multiple lines of computational evidence support a deleterious effect on the gene or gene product (conservation, evolutionary, etc) Not Applicable
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PP4 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Patient’s phenotype or family history is highly specific for a disease with a single genetic etiology.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Decreased ETC enzyme activity (<20%) performed in a CLIA-approved (or equivalently-certified) laboratory in muscle, liver, and/or fibroblasts (for fibroblasts, must be seen in multiple unrelated probands and/or assayed in different individuals). Not Applicable
Comments:
Other causes of ETC enzyme deficiency must be excluded, to the best of current ability, by comprehensive mtDNA and nDNA sequencing. Nuclear DNA genes including ETC complex subunits, assembly factors, and translation components should be thoroughly evaluated with no pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants (present in trans if autosomal recessive inheritance) that could be causative detected. See Supplemental file for list of genes.
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PP5 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Reputable source recently reports variant as pathogenic, but the evidence is not available to the laboratory to perform an independent evaluation.
Not Applicable
This criterion is not for use as recommended by the ClinGen Sequence Variant Interpretation VCEP Review Committee.
PubMed : 29543229
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BA1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Allele frequency is above 5% in Exome Sequencing Project, 1000 Genomes or Exome Aggregation Consortium.
Stand Alone
Top-level haplogroup defining variants in individuals that are members of that same top-level haplogroup OR Allele frequency > 0.01 (1%) Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
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BS1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Allele frequency is greater than expected for disorder.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Allele frequency 0.005 - 0.0099 (0.5% - 0.99%) Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
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BS2 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Observed in a healthy adult individual for a recessive (homozygous), dominant (heterozygous), or X-linked (hemizygous) disorder, with full penetrance expected at an early age.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Observed at a higher heteroplasmy in a healthy adult individual, especially in healthy maternal family members, than in same tissue tested in an affected individual Moderate
Supporting
Observed at a higher heteroplasmy in a healthy adult individual, especially in healthy maternal family members, than in different tissue(s) tested in an affected individual Not Applicable
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BS3 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Well-established in vitro or in vivo functional studies show no damaging effect on protein function or splicing.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
No evidence of functional effect in cybrid studies or single fiber analysis is present (no statistically significant difference from control; mean values of <2 SD from control mean, or 50% enzyme activity compared to controls). Not Applicable
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BS4 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Lack of segregation in affected members of a family.
Caveat: The presence of phenocopies for common phenotypes (i.e. cancer, epilepsy) can mimic lack of segregation among affected individuals. Also, families may have more than one pathogenic variant contributing to an autosomal dominant disorder, further confounding an apparent lack of segregation. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Lack of segregation in affected members of a family and/or segregation of disease in paternal family members Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
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BP1 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Missense variant in a gene for which primarily truncating variants are known to cause disease.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
Comments:
Most variants in protein-coding mtDNA genes are not truncating, but rather missense variants. Even if truncating variants were more common, this would not preclude missense variants from also causing a loss of protein function.
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BP2 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Observed in trans with a pathogenic variant for a fully penetrant dominant gene/disorder or observed in cis with a pathogenic variant in any inheritance pattern.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Other mtDNA variant is observed in individual’s mtDNA that has previously been confirmed to be pathogenic Not Applicable
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BP3 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
In frame-deletions/insertions in a repetitive region without a known function.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Not Applicable
Comments:
There are a few locations in the mtDNA genome where indels within a repetitive region are observed outside of two common locations: one is in the hypervariable region 1 (around position 16,189) and the other in hypervariable region 2 (around position 310). These indels are well-known benign findings.
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BP4 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Multiple lines of computational evidence suggest no impact on gene or gene product (conservation, evolutionary, splicing impact, etc)
Caveat: As many in silico algorithms use the same or very similar input for their predictions, each algorithm cannot be counted as an independent criterion. BP4 can be used only once in any evaluation of a variant. Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Multiple lines of computational evidence suggest no impact on gene or gene product (conservation, evolutionary, etc) Not Applicable
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BP5 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Variant found in a case with an alternate molecular basis for disease.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
Mitochondrial DNA variant found in a case with a nuclear DNA-related disease Not Applicable
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BP6 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
Reputable source recently reports variant as benign, but the evidence is not available to the laboratory to perform an independent evaluation.
Not Applicable
This criterion is not for use as recommended by the ClinGen Sequence Variant Interpretation VCEP Review Committee.
PubMed : 29543229
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BP7 | ||||
Original ACMG Summary
A synonymous variant for which splicing prediction algorithms predict no impact to the splice consensus sequence nor the creation of a new splice site AND the nucleotide is not highly conserved.
Stand Alone
Very Strong
Strong
Moderate
Supporting
A synonymous (silent) variant. Not Applicable
Comments:
Mitochondrial genes do not undergo splicing. Conservation is included in predictor algorithms used in PP3 and BP4, so conservation will be incorporated in this criterion.
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