The m.8344A>G variant in MT-TK was reviewed by the Mitochondrial Disease Nuclear and Mitochondrial Variant Curation Expert Panel as part of the variant pilot for mitochondrial DNA variant specifications (McCormick et al., 2020; PMID: 32906214). This variant has been reported in >16 individuals with primary mitochondrial disease with variable features. While this variant is classically associated with the mitochondrial disease clinical syndrome MERRF (myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers), affected individuals can have any number of features including but not limited to ataxia, myoclonus, seizures, Leigh syndrome, muscle weakness, exercise intolerance, sensorineural hearing loss, neuropathy, and lipomas, with onset ranging from childhood to adulthood (PS4; PMIDs: 2112427, 1910259, 23635963). This variant heteroplasmy level segregated with severity in >10 family members from >10 families (PP1_moderate; PMIDs: 2112427, 23635963). The computational predictor MitoTIP suggests this variant impacts the function of this tRNA, as does HmtVar with a score of 0.90 (PP3). Cybrid studies supported the functional impact of this variant including a deficiency seen in patient cell line that was transferred to cybrids with a high mutant load and study was reproducible (PS3_supporting; PMIDs: 1848674, 7739567). In summary, this variant meets criteria to be classified as pathogenic for primary mitochondrial disease inherited in a mitochondrial manner. This classification was approved by the NICHD U24 ClinGen Mitochondrial Disease Variant Curation Expert Panel as of August 20, 2020. Mitochondrial DNA-specific ACMG/AMP criteria applied: PS4, PS3_supporting, PP1_moderate, PP3.