ALLELE-SPECIFIC HLA-B-ASTERISK-15 TYPING BY PCR-SSP AND ITS APPLICATION TO 4 DISTINCT ETHNIC POPULATIONS

We present a set of primer mixes for the allele-specific typing of the HLA-B15 group by PCR-SSP. The set comprises 46 primer mixes which ar e designed to unequivocally resolve all but two of the 666 possible co mbinations of the B15 alleles, B*1501-37 (B*1536 sequence unavailable ). A core subset of 34 of the 46 mixes can be used alone to give a hig h resolution B15 typing set. This allows for the identification of ea ch B15 allele when present as the only B*15 allele and the majority o f the possible B15 homozygotic combinations. The method was validated using reference DNA samples and the B15 allele frequency in 4 distin ct ethnic populations was investigated. The results show that these po pulations contain predominantly mutually exclusive sets of B15 allele s.