<p>The <code>@</code> at the end of a name denotes a "gene cluster in chromosome region". This is mentioned in the official <a href="https://www.genenames.org/about/guidelines/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">HUGO nomenclature guidelines</a> in the "Characters reserved for specific usage" section:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Ywv8s.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Ywv8s.png" alt="[HUGO reserved characters table"></a></p>

<p>It's also mentioned in the <a href="https://www.genecards.org/Guide/GeneCard" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GeneCards documentation</a>:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8ltki.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8ltki.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-10T04:27:55.690Z
Very informative. Thanks!
111
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-06-09T22:55:31.527Z
2019-06-09T22:55:31.527Z
terdon
<p>I'm using snpEff to annotate some VCFs and getting some spurious annotations that don't have transcript ids. Some of these annotations have a gene name followed by ampersand such as PCDHB@ and I'm not finding any explanation in the docs.  </p>

<p>Any idea what this refers to? Entire gene family? </p>

<p>Thanks.  </p>

<vcf><sequence-annotation><variant-calling><functional-annotation>
SnpEff gene annotation with @ such as PCDHB@
# SnpEff gene annotation with @ such as PCDHB@

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-06-09)

I'm using snpEff to annotate some VCFs and getting some spurious annotations that don't have transcript ids. Some of these annotations have a gene name followed by ampersand such as PCDHB@ and I'm not finding any explanation in the docs.

Any idea what this refers to? Entire gene family?

Thanks.

**Tags:** vcf, sequence-annotation, variant-calling, functional-annotation

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-06-09. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The `@` at the end of a name denotes a "gene cluster in chromosome region". This is mentioned in the official [HUGO nomenclature guidelines](https://www.genenames.org/about/guidelines/) in the "Characters reserved for specific usage" section:

[![[HUGO reserved characters table](https://i.sstatic.net/Ywv8s.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Ywv8s.png)

It's also mentioned in the [GeneCards documentation](https://www.genecards.org/Guide/GeneCard):

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/8ltki.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/8ltki.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Very informative. Thanks!  

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