HLA-DQ-ALPHA ALLELE AND GENOTYPE FREQUENCIES IN A NATIVE KUWAITI POPULATION

We report the allele and genotype frequencies in a sample of an unrela ted native Kuwaiti population determined by the use of polymerase chai n reaction (PCR) and reverse dot-blot analysis. This technique, involv ing the use of commercially available AmpliType HLA-DQ alpha forensic DNA amplification and typing kit, has permitted the definition of six alleles and 21 genotypes in a sample of 220 people. The allelic freque ncies are in the range 5.7-27.5%. This locus demonstrated a heterozygo sity of 0.80 with an allelic diversity of 0.81 and the power of discri mination (PD) was 0.93. The distribution of observed genotypes conform ed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium thus indicating genetic equilibrium o f the different variants. This population data should permit the use o f HLA-DQ alpha marker for individual identification in forensic casewo rk.