Identification of seventeen novel KIR variants: fourteen of them from two non-Caucasian donors

The killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) expressed by human natu ral killer (NK) cells are encoded by a family of genes on chromosome 19. Th e number of KIR genes varies with haplotype and the individual genes exhibi t polymorphism. To investigate KIR diversity we studied KIR cDNA and genes of four human donors: two Caucasians, one Black American and one Asian Indi an. From analysis of these donors seventeen novel KIR variants were identif ied and characterized, Fifteen of the new variants appear to have a simple allelic relationship with a known KIR, whereas two of them combine the sequ ences of two different KIR genes. Fourteen of the seventeen KIR variants we re isolated from the two non-caucasoid blood donors These data show that mu ch human KIR diversity remains to be characterized, particularly in non-Cau casoid populations.