Interallelic recombination has not played a major role in the history of the HLA-C locus.
The human major histocompatibility complex class I loci HLA-A and HLA-B have previously been shown to differ with regard to the rate of interallelic recombination, with a much higher rate being observed in the case of HLA-B. Until recently, there were very few HLA-C transcripts available for analysis. In the present study, we analyzed C locus alleles from human (n = 24), chimpanzee (n = 1), and gorilla (n = 5). Both phylogenetic analysis and a method for detecting clusters of sites indicative of recombination showed relatively little evidence of interallelic recombination. Thus, in spite of the close evolutionary relationship between HLA-C and HLA-B, HLA-C is evolving more similarly to the HLA-A locus than is HLA-B, further emphasizing the uniqueness of HLA-B.
Yeager
M
M
Department of Biology and Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, 208 Mueller Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Hughes
A L
AL
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D006071:Gorilla gorilla; D015234:HLA-A Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D015236:HLA-C Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D015236:HLA-C Antigens