KCNJ4

Chr 22

potassium inwardly rectifying channel subfamily J member 4

Also known as: HIR, HIRK2, HRK1, IRK-3, IRK3, Kir2.3

NCBI Gene: 3761ENSG00000168135UniProt: P48050

Several different potassium channels are known to be involved with electrical signaling in the nervous system. One class is activated by depolarization whereas a second class is not. The latter are referred to as inwardly rectifying K+ channels, and they have a greater tendency to allow potassium to flow into the cell rather than out of it. This asymmetry in potassium ion conductance plays a key role in the excitability of muscle cells and neurons. The protein encoded by this gene is an integral membrane protein and member of the inward rectifier potassium channel family. The encoded protein has a small unitary conductance compared to other members of this protein family. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

62
ClinVar variants
22
Pathogenic / LP
0.96
pLI score· haploinsufficient
0
Active trials
Clinical Summary— KCNJ4
⚡
Population Constraint (gnomAD)
Highly constrained gene — heterozygous loss-of-function variants are very rare in the population (pLI 0.96). One damaged copy is likely sufficient to cause disease.
📋
ClinVar Variants
22 Pathogenic / Likely Pathogenic· 36 VUS of 62 total submissions

Population Genetics & Constraint

gnomAD v4 — loss-of-function & missense intolerance

gnomAD
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.
0.29LOEUF
pLI 0.965
Z-score 2.99
OE 0.00 (0.00–0.29)
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.
3.97Z-score
OE missense 0.39 (0.33–0.45)
128 obs / 331.3 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.0.00 (0.00–0.29)
0≤0.351.4
Missense OE?Ratio of observed to expected missense variants. OE ≤ 0.6 = fewer missense variants than expected by chance.0.39 (0.33–0.45)
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.0.97
0≤1.21.6
LoF obs/exp: 0 / 10.4Missense obs/exp: 128 / 331.3Syn Z: 0.31

ClinVar Variant Classifications

62 submitted variants in ClinVar

ClinVar

Classification Summary

Pathogenic19
Likely Pathogenic3
VUS36
Benign2
Conflicting1
19
Pathogenic
3
Likely Pathogenic
36
VUS
2
Benign
1
Conflicting

Curated Variants Distribution

Classified variants from ClinVar · 5 ACMG categories

ClassificationLoFMissense + InframeNon-codingSynonymousTotal
Pathogenic
0
0
19
0
19
Likely Pathogenic
0
0
3
0
3
VUS
0
34
2
0
36
Likely Benign
0
0
0
0
0
Benign
0
0
1
1
2
Conflicting
—1
Total03425161

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

View in ClinVar →

Protein Context — Lollipop Plot

KCNJ4 · protein map & ClinVar variants

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

OMIM — Genotype-Phenotype Relationships

1 OMIM entry

OMIM
Clinical Literature
Landmark / reviewRecent case evidence
Key Publications
Landmark & review papers · by relevance
PubMed
Top 10 resultsSearch PubMed ↗
Recent Gene-Specific Literature
Gene in title · MEDLINE · newest first
Europe PMC
Top 5 resultsSearch Europe PMC ↗

Clinical Trials

Active and recruiting trials from ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov

No active trials found for this gene.

Search ClinicalTrials.gov →

External Resources

Links to major genomics databases and tools