<p>When working with alternative transcripts, I see a decimal ending to the transcript id. What does the decimal value add to the transcript meaning? For example, a mutation, BRAF p.V600M is annotated by VEP with:</p>

<p>csn=&quot;ENST00000479537.1:c.82G&gt;A_p.Val28Met&quot;</p>

<p>hgvsc=&quot;ENST00000479537.1:c.82G&gt;A&quot;</p>

<p>transcript_id=&quot;ENST00000479537&quot;</p>

<p>&amp;</p>

<p>csn=&quot;ENST00000288602.6:c.1798G&gt;A_p.Val600Met&quot;</p>

<p>hgvsc=&quot;ENST00000288602.6:c.1798G&gt;A&quot;</p>

<p>transcript_id=&quot;ENST00000288602&quot;</p>

<p>I see the <a href="http://grch37.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?db=core;g=ENSG00000157764;r=7:140419127-140624564">transcript IDs for BRAF listed at Ensembl</a> as they are given in the &quot;transcript_id&quot; fields above. What does the &quot;.1&quot; and &quot;.6&quot; mean for each transcript above?</p>

<p>They are version numbers. They&#39;re not useful for most practical purposes because if the sequence changes significantly, then the ID itself is changed. See <a href="https://www.ensembl.org/info/genome/stable_ids/index.html">here</a> for an explanation of versioning in Ensembl.</p>

EDIT: update link