Polymorphism in mouse and human class I H-2 and HLA genes is not the result of random independent point mutations.
Sufficient mouse H-2 and human HLA class I gene sequences have become available to make a statistical analysis of nucleotide variations within the multigene families possible. In the H-2 and HLA families, a group of four H-2K allelic sequences and three HLA-A sequences were compared with a group of four non-H-2 and three non-HLA-A sequences, respectively. Simple calculations show that nucleotide variations in each group do not occur in a random independent fashion. It is therefore possible that a number of mutations are "concerted" between the subgroups. Interestingly, these concerted mutations are clustered and distributed almost exclusively in the 5' end of H-2 and HLA genes, which is very rich in GC nucleotides, and where the dinucleotide CpG is particularly frequent. The general concept of unequal repair is proposed as the basis of a model which is supported by these observations.
D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006183:H-2 Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009154:Mutation; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011336:Probability; D013045:Species Specificity
D006183:H-2 Antigens; C024755:H-2K(K) antigen; D006680:HLA Antigens; D015234:HLA-A Antigens