CAMK2A

Chr 5

calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II alpha

Also known as: CAMKA, CaMKIINalpha, CaMKIIalpha, MRD53, MRT63

The product of this gene belongs to the serine/threonine protein kinases family, and to the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases subfamily. Calcium signaling is crucial for several aspects of plasticity at glutamatergic synapses. This calcium calmodulin-dependent protein kinase is composed of four different chains: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. The alpha chain encoded by this gene is required for hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial learning. In addition to its calcium-calmodulin (CaM)-dependent activity, this protein can undergo autophosphorylation, resulting in CaM-independent activity. Several transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been identified for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jun 2018]

Primary Disease Associations & Inheritance

UniProtIntellectual developmental disorder, autosomal dominant 53
UniProtIntellectual developmental disorder, autosomal recessive 63
190
ClinVar variants
38
Pathogenic / LP
1.00
pLI score· haploinsufficient
1
Active trials
Clinical SummaryCAMK2A
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Gene-Disease Validity (ClinGen)
complex neurodevelopmental disorder · ADDefinitive

Definitive — sufficient evidence for diagnostic panels

Population Constraint (gnomAD)
Highly constrained gene — heterozygous loss-of-function variants are very rare in the population (pLI 1.00). One damaged copy is likely sufficient to cause disease.
📋
ClinVar Variants
38 Pathogenic / Likely Pathogenic· 92 VUS of 190 total submissions
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Clinical Trials
1 active or recruiting trial — potential therapeutic options may be available
Some data sources returned errors (1)

omim: Error: OMIM fetch failed: 429

Population Genetics & Constraint

gnomAD v4 — loss-of-function & missense intolerance

Dual constrained — LoF & missense intolerant
LoF Constraint?LOEUF (Loss-of-function Observed/Expected Upper bound Fraction) is the upper bound of the 90% CI for LoF OE — the preferred gnomAD v4 metric. Lower = more intolerant to LoF. LOEUF < 0.35 = highly constrained.
0.25LOEUF
pLI 0.998
Z-score 4.98
OE 0.11 (0.050.25)
Highly constrained

Highly LoF-intolerant (top ~10% of genes)

Missense Constraint?Missense Z-score: standard deviations fewer missense variants observed vs. expected. Z > 3.09 (p < 0.001) = gene does not tolerate missense variation. OE missense < 0.6 is also considered constrained.
4.68Z-score
OE missense 0.24 (0.200.29)
72 obs / 299.8 exp
Constrained

Highly missense-constrained (top ~0.1%)

Observed / Expected Ratios?Shaded band = 90% confidence interval. Vertical tick = point estimate. Grey threshold line = gnomAD constraint cutoff for that variant class.
LoF OE?Ratio of observed to expected LoF variants. Upper CI bound (LOEUF) ≤ 0.35 = strong LoF constraint signal.0.11 (0.050.25)
00.351.4
Missense OE?Ratio of observed to expected missense variants. OE ≤ 0.6 = fewer missense variants than expected by chance.0.24 (0.200.29)
00.61.4
Synonymous OE?Control metric — synonymous variants are largely neutral and expected near OE = 1.0. Significant deviation may indicate annotation issues.0.91
01.21.6
LoF obs/exp: 4 / 36.5Missense obs/exp: 72 / 299.8Syn Z: 0.82

ClinVar Variant Classifications

190 submitted variants in ClinVar

Classification Summary

Pathogenic23
Likely Pathogenic15
VUS92
Likely Benign44
Benign7
Conflicting9
23
Pathogenic
15
Likely Pathogenic
92
VUS
44
Likely Benign
7
Benign
9
Conflicting

Curated Variants Distribution

Classified variants from ClinVar · 5 ACMG categories

ClassificationLoFMissense + InframeNon-codingSynonymousTotal
Pathogenic
1
9
13
0
23
Likely Pathogenic
2
9
4
0
15
VUS
7
65
15
5
92
Likely Benign
0
7
18
19
44
Benign
0
0
5
2
7
Conflicting
9
Total10905526190

LoF = frameshift, stop gained/lost, canonical splice · Counts from ClinVar esearch · Updated hourly

View in ClinVar →

Protein Context — Lollipop Plot

CAMK2A · protein map & ClinVar variants

Showing all ClinVar variants across the protein. Search a specific variant to highlight its position.

Gene2Phenotype Curations

CAMK2A-related intellectual disability

strong
ADLoss Of FunctionAbsent Gene Product
Dev. Disorders
G2P ↗

Gene2Phenotype curations · DECIPHER consortium patient cohort (public variants) · deciphergenomics.org

OMIM — Genotype-Phenotype

No OMIM entries found.

Clinical Literature
Landmark / reviewRecent case evidence
Key Publications
Landmark & review papers · by relevance
PubMed
Anti-seizure gene therapy for focal cortical dysplasia.
Almacellas Barbanoj A et al.·Brain
2024
PYK2 in the dorsal striatum of Huntington's disease R6/2 mouse model.
Al Massadi O et al.·Neurobiol Dis
2025Functional
Top 10 resultsSearch PubMed ↗