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The characteristics of allelic polymorphism in killer-immunoglobulin-like receptor framework genes in African Americans

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Abstract

The frequencies of alleles of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genes, KIR3DL3 and KIR3DL2, and the carrier frequency of KIR2DL4 alleles have been determined from a population of African Americans (n = 100) by DNA sequencing of the coding regions. Fifty alleles of KIR3DL3 were observed with the most frequent, KIR3DL3*00901 (13%). KIR3DL2 was also diverse; 32 alleles with KIR3DL2*00103 the most frequent (17%). For KIR2DL4, of the 18 alleles observed, one allele, KIR2DL4*00103, was found in 64 of the 100 individuals. Thirty-six novel alleles encoding a total of 28 unique receptors are described. Pairwise comparisons among all of the alleles at each locus suggest a predominance of synonymous substitutions. The variation at all three framework loci fits a neutral model of evolution.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by funding from the Office of Naval Research N00014-08-1-1078. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or the US government. The authors would like to thank Drs. Steven Mack and Matthew Hamilton for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Oncology, CW Bill Young Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program, Georgetown University Medical Center, E404 Research Building, 3970 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Carolyn Katovich Hurley

  2. Departments of Pediatrics, CW Bill Young Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program, Georgetown University Medical Center, 11333 Woodglen Drive, Rockville, MD, 20852, USA

    LiHua Hou, Bo Jiang, Minghua Chen & Jennifer Ng

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  1. LiHua Hou
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  2. Bo Jiang
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  3. Minghua Chen
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  4. Jennifer Ng
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  5. Carolyn Katovich Hurley
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Correspondence to Carolyn Katovich Hurley.

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Hou, L., Jiang, B., Chen, M. et al. The characteristics of allelic polymorphism in killer-immunoglobulin-like receptor framework genes in African Americans. Immunogenetics 63, 549–559 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-011-0536-6

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