A novel DRβ1 ∗03 allele identified by polymerase chain reaction—Restriction fragment length polymorphism

Abstract

This report describes a new MHC class II allele, HLA-DRβ1 ∗ ∗ The name DRβ1∗0306 was officially assigned by the WHO Nomenclature Committee in September 1995. This follows the agreed policy that, subject to the conditions stated in the most recent Nomenclature Report {!}, names will be assigned to new sequences as they are identified. Lists of such new names will be published in the following WHO Nomenclature Report. The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper will appear in the EMBL, Gen Bank, and DDBJ sequence databases under the accession number X90644. 0306, discovered in a 31-year-old Norwegian male. The allele typed serologically as DRw52 (DR3) and amplified in PCR using DR52-associated group primers. This product could not be identified using established restriction digests, however. Use of Asp 700, Msp I, Hha I, Bse RI, Mnl I, Hph I, and Bsrb I gave banding patterns expected for a DRβ1 ∗03011 allele, but Rsa I had an additional site at codon 47. Sequencing showed a single base change at this position, with the substitution of tyrosine for phenylanine in this new allele. The biologic impact of this substitution remains to be determined.