Investigation of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor gene diversity: IV. KIR3DL1/S1

The polymorphic nature of the KIR3DL1/S1 gene complex has been investigated through the development of a polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes (PCR-SSOP) allele typing system. The KIR3DL1/S1 system was applied to a healthy group of Northern Irish individuals to establish allele frequencies within this Caucasian population. Additionally, cell line DNA and CEPH families, both from the 13th International Histocompatibility Workshop, and local families have been investigated. The generated data emphasize the complexity and highly polymorphic nature of this KIR gene complex; 11 allelic variations were identified, 2 of which are novel to this study. Use of the PCR-SSOP system has confirmed the presence of multiple copies of KIR3DL1/S1 alleles in a number of individuals.