A HIGH-FREQUENCY OF MAMU-A-ASTERISK-01 IN THE RHESUS MACAQUE DETECTEDBY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION WITH SEQUENCE-SPECIFIC PRIMERS AND DIRECT SEQUENCING

SIV infection of rhesus macaques is an excellent model for HIV infecti on of humans. Unfortunately, it is has been difficult to identify maca ques expressing particular MHC class I alleles. Here we describe the u se of PCR-SSP for Mamu-A01 typing of rhesus macaques. The Mamu-A*01 a llele was amplified from genomic DNA using Mamu-A01-specific primers and positive PCR products were directly sequenced. Our technique ident ified 15 Mamu-A01-positive animals of 68 tested. We validated our mol ecular analysis by showing that lymphocytes from 8 Mamu-A01-positive animals expressed Mamu-A01 as determined by immunoprecipitation and 1 -D IEE The technical simplicity and accuracy of this typing method sho uld facilitate selection of Mamu-A01-positive rhesus macaques for AID S virus pathogenesis and vaccine studies.