title: Owl monkey MHC-DRB exon 2 reveals high similarity with several HLA-DRB lineages.
abstract: One hundred and ten novel MHC-DRB gene exon 2 nucleotide sequences were sequenced in 96 monkeys from three owl monkey species (67 from Aotus nancymaae, 30 from Aotus nigriceps and 13 from Aotus vociferans). Owl monkeys, like humans, have high MHC-DRB allele polymorphism, revealing a striking similarity with several human allele lineages in the peptide binding region and presenting major convergence with DRB lineages from several Catarrhini (humans, apes and Old World monkeys) rather than with others New World monkeys (Platyrrhini). The parallelism between human and Aotus MHC-DRB reveals additional similarities regarding variability pattern, selection pressure and physicochemical constraints in amino acid replacements. These observations concerning previous findings of similarity between the Aotus immune system molecules and their human counterparts affirm this specie's usefulness as an excellent animal model in biomedical research.
authors.affiliation: Fundación Instituto de Inmunmología de Colombia, Carrera 50 No. 26-00, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Carlos F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Suárez
authors.forename: Manuel E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Patarroyo
authors.forename: Esperanza
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trujillo
authors.forename: Mónica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estupiñán
authors.forename: Juan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Baquero
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016645:Aotidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D019070:Cell Lineage; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II / Q000235:genetics*; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059811:HLA-DRB1 Chains