Sequencings

Markers / HFE

rs1799945

Iron overload, H63D

GeneHFE
Positionchr6:26,091,179
VersionsC / G
Evidenceestablished

What this position does

The second and much milder HFE variant. On its own it causes very little; paired with C282Y it occasionally produces mild iron loading.

What each result means

If you carryWhat it means
No copies of the effect version
CC
You do not carry H63D
Neither copy carries H63D.
One copy
CG
You carry one copy, which on its own does very little
Common and usually of no consequence by itself.
Two copies
GG
You carry two copies, which rarely causes iron problems by itself
Rarely causes iron overload without a C282Y copy alongside it.

This one cannot be read reliably from a home DNA test. Its two versions are mirror images of each other, so there is no way to tell which DNA strand your testing company reported. Sequencings declines it rather than guessing, and so should anything else.

How common each version is

Ancestry groupG (the effect version)
African1.1%
American11.5%
East Asian2.9%
European17.2%
South Asian7.1%

1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.

How many people carry each result

Ancestry groupCCCGGG
African646 / 66115 / 6610 / 661
European348 / 503137 / 50318 / 503
East Asian478 / 50423 / 5043 / 504
South Asian420 / 48969 / 4890 / 489
American276 / 34762 / 3479 / 347

Counts of people, not modelled frequencies: every one of the 2,504 individuals sequenced by the 1000 Genomes Project phase 3, tallied by the genotype they carry. Deriving these from allele frequencies instead would assume random mating inside each group and undercount the homozygotes.

How to find out which you have

If you have taken a test with 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, TellMeGen or Living DNA, this position is very likely already in the raw data file they gave you. You do not need another test.

One thing to watch if you look it up by hand: testing companies report some positions from one DNA strand and some from the other, and the file does not say which. Read the letters as they appear and you will get the opposite of the truth for some positions. Sequencings resolves that automatically.

Source

Feder et al., A novel MHC class I-like gene is mutated in patients with hereditary haemochromatosis, Nature Genetics (1996)

Coordinates and allele pair verified against Ensembl GRCh37. Direction of effect verified against VEP protein consequences or 1000 Genomes population frequency. Category: Health-adjacent.

Related

All markers in HFE

Where this fits

Common questions

What is rs1799945?

rs1799945 is a position in the HFE gene on chromosome 6. The second and much milder HFE variant. On its own it causes very little; paired with C282Y it occasionally produces mild iron loading.

What does it mean if I have GG at rs1799945?

You carry two copies, which rarely causes iron problems by itself. Rarely causes iron overload without a C282Y copy alongside it.

What does it mean if I have CC at rs1799945?

You do not carry H63D. Neither copy carries H63D.

How do I find out my rs1799945 genotype?

If you have taken a home DNA test, this position is very likely in the raw data file you were given. Sequencings reads that file in your browser without uploading it, and resolves which DNA strand each position was reported from, which is the step most manual lookups get wrong.

This is reference information, not medical advice, and not a diagnosis. See the medical disclaimer. Category: Health-adjacent.