HLA POLYMORPHISM IN MOROCCAN JEWRY

The Moroccan Jewish community living in Israel shows a relatively larg e genetic distance from other North African Jewish communities. In thi s work the polymorphism of HLA class I and class II determinants, as d efined by serology and oligotyping, is analyzed in 113 healthy unrelat ed Jews of Moroccan stock. The class I antigens HLA-A1, -B44, and -Cw7 showed the highest frequency, while the most prevalent class II varia nts were DRB10701 and *1104, DQA1*0501, and DQB1*0201 and *0301. HLA A1-B13-DR7, A2-B51-DR10, and A1-B44-DR13 were the most typical three-l ocus haplotypes. Although the antigen frequency distribution of the Mo roccan Jews falls within the Caucasian diversity range, this community has a unique pattern in terms of antigen, gene, and haplotype frequen cies. Thus, in the Moroccan Jews DRB 11305, an allele believed to be the result of a recombination event between DRB 11301-1302 and DRB1*1 101, is represented to a much larger extent than in all the other popu lation groups studied at the 11th IHWS. This allele may therefore be a typical Jewish variant. A particular finding was the high frequencies of HLA-BL3, B52, and DR10, alleles common among some Oriental populat ions. The answer to this enigmatic phenomenon probably must be sought in the tortuous history of this community.