# NM_001918.5(DBT):c.*8900A>T

https://sugi.bio/variant/dbt-c-star-8900a-t

## Summary

**DBT c.*8900A>T** is classified **Uncertain significance** in DBT (ClinVar, Single submitter, 1 submitter; last evaluated 2018-01-13). Absent from gnomAD v4.1; Associated with maple syrup urine disease.

**At a glance:** Uncertain significance · review: Single submitter · rsID rs886044936 · 1 submitter · 1 linked condition · absent from gnomAD v4.1

## For patients & families {#patients}

This is a change in the DBT gene that is currently of uncertain significance — a definitive interpretation has not yet been established, submitted by 1 submitter, and is linked to maple syrup urine disease.

*Reference information, not medical advice, and not a prediction for any individual. A genetic counselor or clinician can interpret what it means for you and your family.*

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Typical inheritance (of this condition) | Autosomal recessive |
| Age of onset (of this condition) | Childhood, Infancy, Neonatal |
| Prevalence | 1-9 / 1 000 000 (Worldwide) |
| Clinical trials | 11 registered for this condition — see ClinicalTrials.gov |
| Diagnostic panels | DBT is a diagnostic-grade gene on 10 Genomics England panels |

**Commonly reported features of Maple syrup urine disease** (across patients with this condition; presentation varies — frequencies from Orphanet):

- Abnormality of the pharynx — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Intellectual disability — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Seizure — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Hypotonia — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Global developmental delay — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Reduced tendon reflexes — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Abnormality of the voice — Very frequent (99-80%)
- Respiratory insufficiency — Very frequent (99-80%)

**Support & next steps:** [Condition overview & support (NIH GARD)](https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/0003228/index) · [Find a genetic counselor (NSGC)](https://findageneticcounselor.nsgc.org/).

## Identity {#identity}

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Gene | [DBT](https://sugi.bio/atlas/gene/DBT/) |
| Coding change (HGVS c.) | c.*8900A>T |
| MANE Select transcript | [NM_001918](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/NM_001918) |
| dbSNP | [rs886044936](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp/rs886044936/) |
| Variant type | single nucleotide variant |
| Location | chr1:100187355-100187355 (GRCh38) |
| ClinVar | [VCV291379](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/variation/291379/) |

**All HGVS expressions:** `NC_000001.10:g.100652911T>A`, `NC_000001.11:g.100187355T>A`, `NG_011852.2:g.67499A>T`, `NM_001918.5:c.*8900A>T`

## Computational & population evidence {#evidence}

**Concordance:** Mixed / partial computational evidence (see below).

- **Missense predictors (AlphaMissense/REVEL/SaProt) do not apply** to this variant type — they score amino-acid substitutions only. For non-missense variants the computational signal comes from conservation (below), not from a missing predictor score.
- Conservation: phyloP -2.213, GERP -1.61 — fast-evolving / accelerated position
- CADD: **PHRED 0.179**. No single ClinGen-calibrated threshold exists and the expert panels that use CADD disagree — GUCY2D/AIPL1 require ≥ 20.0 for an untranslated-region variant, ABCA4 ≥ 28.1 for a synonymous or indel variant, the Pulmonary Hypertension panel imports Pejaver 2022's missense-calibrated numbers, and the Antibody Deficiencies panel declines CADD entirely for PIK3CD. CADD v1.7 also incorporates Zoonomia phyloP, so it partly re-expresses the conservation above. *Descriptive; no threshold applied.*
- Non-coding constraint (Gnocchi): **Z 0.93**, o/e 0.93 (1 kb window 100,187,000–100,188,000). A higher Z means the window carries less variation than expected. Describes the 1 kb window, not this allele. No ClinGen expert panel references Gnocchi and no ACMG-calibrated threshold exists for it. *Descriptive; no cut-point applied.*
- SpliceAI: **not assessed** — no allele at this position is in our SpliceAI release, either because it lies outside the scored MANE transcript scope or because every allele is below Δ0.2. We cannot tell which, so this claims neither; absence is not evidence against a splicing effect.
- Population frequency: **absent from gnomAD v4.1** — a rarity signal (ACMG PM2-supporting), not evidence of pathogenicity on its own.

*Computational predictors are not independent (ClinGen Variant Classification guidance): AlphaMissense (Cheng et al. 2023) carries the ACMG weight for missense and conservation (phyloP/GERP/phastCons) for non-missense; REVEL (Pejaver-2022 calibrated strength bands) and SaProt (Su et al. 2023, structure-aware, ClinVar-independent protein language model, raw LLR) are shown as orthogonal agreement signals, not additive. For frequency, the gnomAD v4.1 grpmax filtering allele frequency (FAF95) is ClinGen's designated BA1/BS1 input (gnomAD v4 guidance v3.0, June 2025); BA1/BS1 thresholds are disease-specific, not a blanket 5%. Predictions, not a clinical determination.*

## Gene constraint & dosage {#gene-context}

**DBT** population constraint: LOEUF 1.255, pLI 3.6458e-09, missense-Z 1.3238; ClinGen dosage — haploinsufficiency 30, triplosensitivity 0 (0–3 scale). *Lower LOEUF and higher pLI indicate a gene that tolerates loss-of-function poorly; ClinGen dosage is the curated haploinsufficiency call.*

Curated gene–disease validity (ClinGen):

- **maple syrup urine disease** — Definitive (AR)

## Protein context {#protein}


AlphaFold model confidence (whole protein): pLDDT 78.71, 55% of residues very-high.

**5 experimental structure(s)** (PDB): [1K8M](https://www.rcsb.org/structure/1K8M), [1K8O](https://www.rcsb.org/structure/1K8O), [1ZWV](https://www.rcsb.org/structure/1ZWV), [2COO](https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2COO), [3RNM](https://www.rcsb.org/structure/3RNM).

## What this gene does {#gene-function}

*Describes the biological roles of DBT (the gene this variant disrupts) — not effects measured for this specific variant. A damaging variant is expected to affect these functions and pathways; the degree depends on the variant.*

**How this variant is thought to act:** DBT's established molecular role includes ubiquitin protein ligase binding. In Reactome, DBT is annotated in disease pathway(s) including **Branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase deficiency**, **H139Hfs13* PPM1K causes a mild variant of  MSUD**.

**Disease mechanism (Reactome):** DBT loss or alteration is curated in [Branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase deficiency](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9912481), [H139Hfs13* PPM1K causes a mild variant of  MSUD](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9912529), [Loss-of-function mutations in BCKDHA or BCKDHB cause MSUD](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9865125).

### Pathways affected {#pathways}

DBT participates in **10 Reactome pathways** (⚕ = disease pathway):

| Pathway (Reactome) | Evidence |
| --- | --- |
| ⚕ [Branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase deficiency](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9912481) | curated |
| ⚕ [H139Hfs13* PPM1K causes a mild variant of  MSUD](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9912529) | curated |
| ⚕ [Loss-of-function mutations in BCKDHA or BCKDHB cause MSUD](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9865125) | curated |
| ⚕ [Loss-of-function mutations in DBT cause MSUD2](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9865113) | curated |
| ⚕ [Loss-of-function mutations in DLD cause MSUD3/DLDD](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9907570) | curated |
| [BCKDH synthesizes BCAA-CoA from KIC, KMVA, KIV](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9859138) | curated |
| [Branched-chain amino acid catabolism](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-70895) | curated |
| [Mitochondrial protein degradation](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9837999) | curated |
| [Protein lipoylation](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9857492) | curated |
| [RHOH GTPase cycle](https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-9013407) | curated |

### Molecular function & processes (GO — experimentally supported) {#go}

**Molecular function:** ubiquitin protein ligase binding.

**Biological process:** branched-chain amino acid catabolic process, branched-chain alpha-keto acid decarboxylation to branched-chain acyl-CoA.

## Clinical significance {#significance}

**Uncertain significance** — review status Single submitter *(criteria provided, single submitter)*, last evaluated 2018-01-13.

**Submitter consensus:** unanimous (1/1 Uncertain significance).

### Submitter classifications {#submitters}

| Submitter | Classification | Review | Method | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Illumina Laboratory Services, Illumina | Uncertain significance | criteria provided, single submitter | clinical testing | 2018-01-13 |

## Associated conditions {#conditions}

[maple syrup urine disease](https://sugi.bio/atlas/disease/maple-syrup-urine-disease/).

**Reported phenotype names (ClinVar):** Maple syrup urine disease.

## Similar variants {#similar}

Related DBT variant pages (same residue, condition, or type): [DBT c.1018-550A>G](/variant/dbt-c-1018-minus-550a-g), [DBT c.1281+1G>A](/variant/dbt-c-1281-plus-1g-a), [DBT c.1281+1G>T](/variant/dbt-c-1281-plus-1g-t), [DBT c.51+1G>T](/variant/dbt-c-51-plus-1g-t), [DBT c.52-1G>A](/variant/dbt-c-52-minus-1g-a), [DBT p.Arg291Ter](/variant/dbt-p-arg291ter), [DBT p.Arg301Cys](/variant/dbt-p-arg301cys), [DBT p.Arg376Cys](/variant/dbt-p-arg376cys).

### Data sources & attribution {#sources}

ClinVar (NCBI — public domain, built 2026-10-11); gnomAD v4.1 (Broad Institute, built 2026-10-06); AlphaMissense (Cheng et al. 2023, © Google DeepMind — CC BY 4.0, built 2026-01-27); REVEL (Ioannidis et al. 2016 — ODbL, built 2026-07-13); SaProt (Su et al. 2023 — MIT, built 2026-07-14); SpliceAI (Illumina — free for non-commercial use, built 2026-10-13); CADD (Rentzsch et al. 2019, University of Washington — free for non-commercial use, built 2026-10-10); Conservation (phyloP/phastCons/GERP) (UCSC hg38 470-way mammal (Hiller Lab) + Ensembl Compara, built 2026-07-12); gnomAD Non-coding Constraint (Gnocchi) (Chen et al. 2024, Broad Institute — CC0, built 2026-10-11); gnomAD Regional Missense Constraint (Broad Institute — CC0, built 2026-10-13); Pangolin (Zeng & Li 2022 — CC BY 4.0, built 2026-10-11); Repeat regions (UCSC — RepeatMasker, TRF, segmental duplications, built 2026-10-11); ClinGen (ClinGen, built 2026-09-22); UniProt (CC BY 4.0); Reactome / GO (CC BY 4.0, built 2026-09-23); MaveDB (per-record license, built 2026-10-11); CIViC (CC0, built 2026-09-22); Orphanet (Orphanet, built 2026-06-12)

*Primary record: NCBI ClinVar (variation 291379). Classifications reflect these databases as of the page's build date and may change. Free reference use — not medical advice; consult the primary submitters and a clinician.*