The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies

Next generation sequencing (NGS) is currently being adapted by different biotechnological platforms to the standard typing method for HLA polymorphism, the huge diversity of which makes this initiative particularly challenging. Boosting the molecular characterization of the HLA genes through efficie...

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Main Authors: Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, Diogo Meyer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2014-01-01
Series:Journal of Immunology Research
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/971818
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author Alicia Sanchez-Mazas
Diogo Meyer
author_facet Alicia Sanchez-Mazas
Diogo Meyer
author_sort Alicia Sanchez-Mazas
collection DOAJ
description Next generation sequencing (NGS) is currently being adapted by different biotechnological platforms to the standard typing method for HLA polymorphism, the huge diversity of which makes this initiative particularly challenging. Boosting the molecular characterization of the HLA genes through efficient, rapid, and low-cost technologies is expected to amplify the success of tissue transplantation by enabling us to find donor-recipient matching for rare phenotypes. But the application of NGS technologies to the molecular mapping of the MHC region also anticipates essential changes in population genetic studies. Huge amounts of HLA sequence data will be available in the next years for different populations, with the potential to change our understanding of HLA variation in humans. In this review, we first explain how HLA sequencing allows a better assessment of the HLA diversity in human populations, taking also into account the methodological difficulties it introduces at the statistical level; secondly, we show how analyzing HLA sequence variation may improve our comprehension of population genetic relationships by facilitating the identification of demographic events that marked human evolution; finally, we discuss the interest of both HLA and genome-wide sequencing and genotyping in detecting functionally significant SNPs in the MHC region, the latter having also contributed to the makeup of the HLA molecular diversity observed today.
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spelling doaj-art-b5e820f431104762ab8bb6da142fe9be2025-02-03T01:31:51ZengWileyJournal of Immunology Research2314-88612314-71562014-01-01201410.1155/2014/971818971818The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics StudiesAlicia Sanchez-Mazas0Diogo Meyer1Department of Genetics and Evolution—Anthropology Unit, University of Geneva and Institute of Genetics and Genomics of Geneva (IGE3), 12 Rue Gustave-Revilliod, 1211 Geneva 4, SwitzerlandDepartment of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, BrazilNext generation sequencing (NGS) is currently being adapted by different biotechnological platforms to the standard typing method for HLA polymorphism, the huge diversity of which makes this initiative particularly challenging. Boosting the molecular characterization of the HLA genes through efficient, rapid, and low-cost technologies is expected to amplify the success of tissue transplantation by enabling us to find donor-recipient matching for rare phenotypes. But the application of NGS technologies to the molecular mapping of the MHC region also anticipates essential changes in population genetic studies. Huge amounts of HLA sequence data will be available in the next years for different populations, with the potential to change our understanding of HLA variation in humans. In this review, we first explain how HLA sequencing allows a better assessment of the HLA diversity in human populations, taking also into account the methodological difficulties it introduces at the statistical level; secondly, we show how analyzing HLA sequence variation may improve our comprehension of population genetic relationships by facilitating the identification of demographic events that marked human evolution; finally, we discuss the interest of both HLA and genome-wide sequencing and genotyping in detecting functionally significant SNPs in the MHC region, the latter having also contributed to the makeup of the HLA molecular diversity observed today.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/971818
spellingShingle Alicia Sanchez-Mazas
Diogo Meyer
The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
Journal of Immunology Research
title The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
title_full The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
title_fullStr The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
title_full_unstemmed The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
title_short The Relevance of HLA Sequencing in Population Genetics Studies
title_sort relevance of hla sequencing in population genetics studies
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/971818
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