CRYAA

Chr 21ADAR

crystallin alpha A

Also known as: CRYA1, CTRCT9, HSPB4

NCBI Gene: 1409 ENSG00000160202 UniProt: P02489

Mammalian lens crystallins are divided into alpha, beta, and gamma families. Alpha crystallins are composed of two gene products: alpha-A and alpha-B, for acidic and basic, respectively. Alpha crystallins can be induced by heat shock and are members of the small heat shock protein (HSP20) family. They act as molecular chaperones although they do not renature proteins and release them in the fashion of a true chaperone; instead they hold them in large soluble aggregates. Post-translational modifications decrease the ability to chaperone. These heterogeneous aggregates consist of 30-40 subunits; the alpha-A and alpha-B subunits have a 3:1 ratio, respectively. Two additional functions of alpha crystallins are an autokinase activity and participation in the intracellular architecture. The encoded protein has been identified as a moonlighting protein based on its ability to perform mechanistically distinct functions. Alpha-A and alpha-B gene products are differentially expressed; alpha-A is preferentially restricted to the lens and alpha-B is expressed widely in many tissues and organs. Defects in this gene cause autosomal dominant congenital cataract (ADCC). [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2014]

Primary Disease Associations & Inheritance

Cataract 9, multiple typesMIM #604219

ADAR

212

ClinVar variants

Pathogenic / LP

0.17

pLI score

Active trials

Clinical Summary— CRYAA

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Population Constraint (gnomAD)

Constrained for loss-of-function variants (OE-LoF 0.31) despite low pLI — interpret in context.

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ClinVar Variants

98 Pathogenic / Likely Pathogenic· 62 VUS of 212 total submissions

Population Genetics & Constraint

gnomAD v4 — loss-of-function & missense intolerance

gnomAD

Tolerant — LoF & missense variants common in population

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.

0.99LOEUF

pLI 0.174

Z-score 1.61

OE 0.31 (0.13–0.99)

Tolerant

Typical tolerance to LoF variation

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.

0.35Z-score

OE missense 0.91 (0.78–1.07)

107 obs / 117.6 exp

Tolerant

Mild missense constraint

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.0.31 (0.13–0.99)

0≤0.351.4

Missense OE?Ratio of observed to expected missense variants. OE ≤ 0.6 = fewer missense variants than expected by chance.0.91 (0.78–1.07)

0≤0.61.4

Synonymous OE?Control metric — synonymous variants are largely neutral and expected near OE = 1.0. Significant deviation may indicate annotation issues.1.11

0≤1.21.6

LoF obs/exp: 2 / 6.4Missense obs/exp: 107 / 117.6Syn Z: -0.65