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Distinguishing functional polymorphism from random variation in the sequences of >10,000 HLA-A, -B and -C alleles

Robinson, J; Guethlein, LA; Cereb, N; Yang, SY; Norman, PJ; Marsh, SGE; Parham, P; (2017) Distinguishing functional polymorphism from random variation in the sequences of >10,000 HLA-A, -B and -C alleles. PLoS Genetics , 13 (6) , Article e1006862. 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006862. Green open access

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Abstract

HLA class I glycoproteins contain the functional sites that bind peptide antigens and engage lymphocyte receptors. Recently, clinical application of sequence-based HLA typing has uncovered an unprecedented number of novel HLA class I alleles. Here we define the nature and extent of the variation in 3,489 HLA-A, 4,356 HLA-B and 3,111 HLA-C alleles. This analysis required development of suites of methods, having general applicability, for comparing and analyzing large numbers of homologous sequences. At least three amino-acid substitutions are present at every position in the polymorphic α1 and α2 domains of HLA-A, -B and -C. A minority of positions have an incidence >1% for the 'second' most frequent nucleotide, comprising 70 positions in HLA-A, 85 in HLA-B and 54 in HLA-C. The majority of these positions have three or four alternative nucleotides. These positions were subject to positive selection and correspond to binding sites for peptides and receptors. Most alleles of HLA class I (>80%) are very rare, often identified in one person or family, and they differ by point mutation from older, more common alleles. These alleles with single nucleotide polymorphisms reflect the germ-line mutation rate. Their frequency predicts the human population harbors 8-9 million HLA class I variants. The common alleles of human populations comprise 42 core alleles, which represent all selected polymorphism, and recombinants that have assorted this polymorphism.

Type: Article
Title: Distinguishing functional polymorphism from random variation in the sequences of >10,000 HLA-A, -B and -C alleles
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006862
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006862
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute > Research Department of Haematology
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1562705
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