--- title: Variant geno card explained description: What the top line of a variant card shows, how its summary is organized, and where you can find the established associations, source links and the comments section. date: 2026-10-08 category: Guide image: img/blog/geno_card_cover.png image_alt: The variant card for rs12913832(A;A) in the HERC2 gene, open on its full analysis --- Every variant in your report gets its own card. The full report, the report pages, Rare variants and Favorites all use the same one, so once you know how to read one card, you can read them all. The example here is rs12913832, a variant in the HERC2 gene best known for its link to eye color. The genotype shown is A;A, the most common one worldwide. ## The top line ![The top line of the rs12913832(A;A) card: the variant name, impact score 0.63, frequency 67.68%, and chr15, HERC2, minor G, MAF 0.18, plus on the right](static:img/blog/geno_card_header.png) Reading left to right: - **The star** saves the card to your Favorites. - **The variant name**, `rs12913832(A;A)`, is the rsID followed by your genotype: the two letters you carry at that position. Click it to open a search for this variant. - **The impact score** (`0.63` here) estimates how meaningful this genotype is for you, on a scale of roughly 0 to 4 and above. The colored dot beside it marks its repute: green for Good, blue for Info, amber for Warning, red for Bad. The color is never the only signal, so the number is always shown next to it. Click the badge to open the FAQ entry that explains how the score is set. - **The frequency** (`67.68%`) is how common your exact genotype is in the general population. About two in three people share this one. A low number means a rarer genotype, which is often more worth reading, but rare doesn't mean risky on its own. On the right, in a smaller font, are the facts about the position itself: - **`chr15`** is the chromosome. It links to Wikipedia. - **`HERC2`** is the gene. It links to GeneCards. - **`minor G`** is the minor allele, the less common of the two letters seen at this position across the population. - **`MAF 0.18`** is the minor allele frequency: G makes up about 18% of alleles in the population. MAF describes one allele across everyone; the frequency badge describes your pair. - **`plus`** is the strand the letters on this card are written on. DNA has two strands, and the same variant reads differently on each: a `C/T` on one strand is a `G/A` on the other. Papers often describe a variant on its gene's strand, which can be the minus strand. HERC2 is one of those, so studies may write this genotype as T;T instead of A;A. That's also why a few letters can look swapped compared with your raw file. Most of these items link to their FAQ entry, so any term is one click from its definition. ## The summary Under the top line is the title of the summary: one sentence that says what this genotype is about. For rs12913832(A;A) it's "Brown eye color and normal pigmentation; no health risks identified". Click "Read full analysis" to open the rest. ![The opened card: the title, a short summary paragraph and the "What it means for me" section](static:img/blog/geno_card_summary.png) The full analysis goes from plain language to technical detail, so you can stop wherever you've read enough: 1. **A short summary.** Two or three sentences with the main point and how common the genotype is. 2. **What it means for me.** The plain-language explanation. Here: you very likely have brown eyes, and no drug, food or supplement guidance is tied to this variant. 3. **Scientific evidence and studies.** What the studies found, with numbered citations. 4. **Practical takeaways.** What, if anything, is worth doing. ![The "Practical takeaways" section of the rs12913832(A;A) summary](static:img/blog/geno_card_takeaways.png) After that come the sections for curious readers: the biology of how the variant works, its limitations and caveats, a deep-science section written for doctors and researchers, and the conclusions. At the bottom is the numbered list of references. Each one links to the paper on PubMed, and the small numbers in the text point to them. ## Established associations Below the references, "Established associations" lists the traits this variant is linked to in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The badge shows how many there are: 26 for rs12913832. Click the heading to open the list. ![The "Established associations" list for rs12913832, starting with body height, asthma and age-related macular degeneration](static:img/blog/geno_card_established.png) Each row starts with a `GWAS` badge and the trait name. The trait name is a link: click it to open the full report page for that trait, with your polygenic score and the other variants behind it. When a study reported an effect for an allele you carry, the row says how many copies you have, as in "you carry 2 copies of the risk allele A". "Risk allele" is the GWAS Catalog's name for the allele the study measured an effect for. For a measurement like height or vitamin D level it only gives the direction of the effect, and for a condition it means studies found it more often in people with that condition. It doesn't mean you have the condition, or that you'll develop it. A single study row says little about one person, which is why the report pages combine many variants into one score instead. The gray line under each row is the study's own data: the effect size with its confidence interval, the p-value, and the PubMed ID. ## Links to the sources ![The bottom of the card: references, the collapsed "Established associations" heading, the link buttons and the comments box](static:img/blog/geno_card_bottom.png) The buttons under the summary take you to the public scientific databases for this variant: - **"dbSNP rs12913832"** opens the variant's entry in dbSNP, the NIH's reference database of genetic variants. - **"More papers"** runs a PubMed search for the rsID. - **"GWAS Catalog"** opens the variant in the NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog. It appears only when the variant has established associations. - **"Search the web"** runs a plain web search for the rsID. Some cards add curated links to other resources. If you've unlocked all your reports, you'll also see "Report bad content". Use it to tell us when something in a summary looks wrong. ## Comments The last part of the card is the comments thread. Comments are attached to the genotype, not to a person: everyone whose report includes rs12913832(A;A) sees the same thread. We store only the comment text and the date. There's no name, account or genome hash linked to it. Adding a comment is open to customers who have unlocked all their reports; the field reads "Add an anonymous comment…". Everyone else sees "Unlock to comment". ## One more thing Think of a card as an interesting starting point for a conversation with a qualified clinician. It's not medical advice. This is data assembled and summarized by AI from public scientific sources. It may contain errors despite our automatic checks and manual reviews, which are ongoing given how much content there is. The references at the bottom of each card are there so you can check.