MBE Advance Access originally published online on March 9, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(6):1375-1385; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi127
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Reduced MIC Gene Repertoire Variation in West African Chimpanzees as Compared to Humans


* Departments of Comparative Genetics and Refinement, and Virology, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands; and
Anthony Nolan Research Institute and Royal Free and UCL School of Medicine, Royal Free Campus, London, United Kingdom
E-mail: groot{at}bprc.nl.
The human major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related (MIC) genes are members of a multicopy family showing similarity to the classical HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C genes. Only the MICA and MICB genes produce functional transcripts. In chimpanzees, however, only one MIC gene is expressed, showing an intermediate character, resulting from a deletion fusing the MICA and MICB gene segments together. The present population study illustrates that all chimpanzee haplotypes sampled possess the hybrid MICA/B gene. In contrast to the human situation this gene displays reduced allelic variation. The observed repertoire reduction of the chimpanzee MICA/B gene is in conformity with the severe repertoire condensation documented for Patr-B locus lineages, probably due to the close proximity of both genes.
Key Words: chimpanzee humans HIV MHC MIC
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