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Reduced MIC gene repertoire variation in West African chimpanzees as compared to humans
Natasja G de Groot1, Christian A Garcia, Ernst J Verschoor
1Department of Comparative Genetics and Refinement, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Rijswijk, The Netherlands. groot@bprc.nl
Abstract:
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.
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