Microsatellites in the HLA region: 1999 update

In this third update of a series of reviews on microsatellites in the HLA r egion or close to it we report 155 microsatellites, corresponding to 51 new ly described markers, in addition to the 103 reported in the 1997 and 1998 reviews. This work is based both on a literature review and on data publicl y available in molecular databases on the internet http://www.gdb.org; http ://bioinfo.weizmann.ac.il/cards/; http://cedar.genetics.soton.ac.uk/) up to September 1999. Thanks to numerous studies involving major histocompatibil ity complex (MHC) microsatellites, documentation on HLA region is proposed, including information on microsatellites described through MHC sequence pr ojects and presenting documented location, polymorphism and am plification condition, together with additional information on previously described mic rosatellites when available and information on data in the literature regar ding gametic associations between HLA region loci and alleles and microsate llite alleles. As basic information are presented various documents: i) a t able showing the following characteristics of the 155 microsatellites: name , localisation, polymorphism, primer sequences, reference; ii) an integrate d map of some HLA region genes and the 155 microsatellites considered; and iii) a summary table on HLA and microsatellites association patterns. In ad dition, an overview on HLA microsatellite analysis application is presented , with a special focus on disease genetics studies in the form of recent re ferences where the use of microsatellites of the HLA region was a key tool. This review aims at providing the human immunogenetics community with a to ol for helping optimal choice of microsatellites to be used in various stud ies.