HLA-DPB1 polymorphism in Blang and Puyi ethnic groups of southwest China inferred from sequence-based typing

In the present study, DNA typing for HLA-DPB1 was performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-sequence-based typing method in two isolated Chinese populations: the Blangs (n = 94) in Shuangjiang County and the Puyis (n = 76) in Luoping County from Yunnan province of Southwest China. These two populations exhibited certain similarity in their allelic distributions of the HLA-DPB1 gene. A total of 11 and 12 alleles at the DPB1 locus were found in the Blang and Puyi groups, respectively. In the Blang group, the most frequent alleles were DPB1*0501 (51.0%) and DPB1*1301 (17.0%). DPB1*030101 was also common with a frequency of 6.4%. In the Puyi group, the most frequent allele was also DPB1*0501 with a frequency of 47.5%, followed by DPB1*1301 (21.1%). Two alleles DPB1*2101 and DPB1*0202 followed, with frequencies ranging between 5% and 8%. The alleles DPB1*4101, DPB1*3301, DPB1*6801 and DPB1*8401 were found for the first time in Chinese populations. A dendrogram constructed by neighbor-joining method showed that the Blang and Puyi ethnic minorities, which had the closest relationship belonged to the southern Chinese.