title: Characterisation of HLA DQ alpha for forensic purposes. Allele and genotype frequencies in British Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean and Asian populations.
abstract: Allele and genotype frequencies for British Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean and Asian populations were determined for a total of over 600 unrelated individuals at the HLA-DQ alpha locus. These were analysed by polymerase chain reaction amplification of the DNA followed by hybridisation to allele specific oligonucleotide probes in a reversed dot-blot test. Six different alleles were detected and the allele distributions for the 3 populations analysed displayed significant differences. However, the British Caucasian genotypes were statistically very similar to previously published data from US Caucasians as were British Afro-Caribbean genotype frequencies with US Black data. In Caucasians the allele frequencies ranged from 5.2% to 26.9% with a power of discrimination of 0.93. DQ alpha genotype frequencies of Caucasian and Afro-Caribbean populations do not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. However, the Asian data displayed significant deviation due to excess homozygotes.
authors.affiliation: Central Research and Support Establishment, Forensic Science Service, Reading, Berkshire, UK.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lingard
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lygo
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059848:HLA-DQ alpha-Chains; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D006113:United Kingdom; D014900:West Indies / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D059848:HLA-DQ alpha-Chains; C069050:HLA-DQA1 antigen