Nucleic Acids Research

This Article Abstract Print PDF (485K) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My Personal Archive Download to citation manager Search for citing articles in: ISI Web of Science (315) Request Permissions Commercial Re-use Guidelines for Open Access NAR Content Google Scholar Articles by Robinson, J. Articles by Marsh, S. G. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Robinson, J. Articles by Marsh, S. G. E. Social Bookmarking          What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2003, Vol. 31, No. 1 311-314
© 2003 Oxford University Press

IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC: sequence databases for the study of the major histocompatibility complex

James Robinson¹, Matthew J. Waller¹, Peter Parham³, Natasja de Groot⁴, Ronald Bontrop⁴, Lorna J. Kennedy⁵, Peter Stoehr⁶ and Steven G. E. Marsh^*,1,2

¹ Anthony Nolan Research Institute and Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG, UK ² Department of Haematology, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG, UK ³ Departments of Structural Biology and Microbiology & Immunology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA ⁴ Biomedical Primate Research Centre, Lange Kleiweg 139, Rijswijk, The Netherlands ⁵ Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, University of Manchester, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK ⁶ EMBL Outstation, The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +44 20 72848321; Fax: +44 20 72848331; Email: marsh{at}ebi.ac.uk

Received September 13, 2002; Accepted September 20, 2002

ABSTRACT

The IMGT/HLA database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla) has provided a centralized repository for the sequences of the alleles named by the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System for the past four years. Since its initial release the database has grown and is the primary source of information for the study of sequences of the human major histocompatibilty complex. The initial release of the database contained a limited number of tools. As a result of feedback from our users and developments in HLA we have been able to provide new tools and facilities. The HLA sequences have also been extended to include intron sequences and the 3' and 5' untranslated regions in the alignments and also the inclusion of new genes such as MICA. The IMGT/MHC database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc) was released in March 2002 to provide a similar resource for other species. The first release of IMGT/MHC contains the sequences of non-human primates (apes, new and old world monkeys), canines and feline sequences. Further species will be added shortly and the database aims to become the primary source of MHC data for non-human sequences.

INTRODUCTION

The IMGT/HLA database is a specialist database for the allelic sequences of the genes in the HLA system, the human major histocompatibility complex. This complex of 4 megabases is located within the 6p21.3 region of the short arm of human chromosome 6 and contains in excess of 220 genes. Genes included in the HLA nomenclature, and which comprise the HLA system, are those involved in antigen presentation to T cells, or are non-functional genes related to them. The core of the HLA system consists of the many highly polymorphic HLA genes which influence the outcome of cell and organ transplants and for which certain alleles are associated with progression of infectious disease and susceptibility to a wide range of chronic, non-infectious diseases (1,2). Nucleotide sequences for more than 1500 different alleles of these genes have been determined. The naming of new allelic sequences and their quality control is the responsibility of the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System (3). The IMGT/HLA database acts as the repository for these sequences, and is recognized as the primary source of up-to-date and accurate HLA sequences.

The IMGT/MHC database expands the coverage of the major histocompatibility complex to a number of different species. The MHC Class I and II genes are highly conserved between species (4) and so the expansion of the IMGT/HLA model to other species is a natural development. The system will be used to coordinate the naming and publication of histocompatibility related alleles in non-human species. The curators of the IMGT/MHC database are not responsible for the naming and identification of sequences, rather the IMGT/MHC database provides a coordinated means of making this data available in a single location and in a standardized format.

Both the IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC databases are based upon sequences currently found in the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (EMBL) (5), GenBank (6) and the DNA DataBank of Japan (DDBJ) (7). Indeed a requirement of all submissions to IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC is that they have been submitted to these more general databases. The main difference between the data held within the different databases is that experts in the relevant species further curate the files included in the IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC databases. This additional step allows improvements in data quality as well as the addition of more specialized information. As a result there are often differences in the files kept in the different databases. When that is the case the file in IMGT/HLA or IMGT/MHC should be considered more accurate.

IMGT/HLA ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT

The first public release of the IMGT/HLA Database (8,9) was made on the 16th December 1998 and was included on the European Bioinformatics Institute's (EBI) Server as part of the IMGT project. The database is now updated quarterly and with each release all the tools are updated to include the new sequences and information on all the new and modified sequences is reported. The IMGT/HLA website provides tools for both the retrieval of HLA sequences and also the manipulation and analysis of these sequences. In addition a large amount of background information is held on the source material from which the sequences were derived. The two main uses of the website are to retrieve information on a single allele or to view sequence alignments based on the official HLA sequences, see Figure 1.

View larger version (41K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. Alignment formats available from the IMGT/HLA and IMGT/MHC Database. The examples shown are based on alignment (A) which shows seven DRB1*01 alleles. In these alignments a dash (-) indicates identity to the reference sequence and an asterisk (*) denotes an unsequenced base. Alignment (B) shows how an alternative reference sequence can be used, here for example we have used a DRB1 consensus sequence. Alignment (C) represents a translation of the nucleotide sequence to produce a protein sequence alignment. Alignment (D) shows the same HLA-DBR1*010 reference sequence been used for the alignment of Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) DRB1 alleles.

 
Using the ‘Allele Query Tool’ users can retrieve information about any allele. The tool provides an interface for retrieving the information that is easy to use, requiring either the allele name, a synonym or previous designation, or a single EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ accession number. The output includes all the information provided in the official WHO Nomenclature Reports as well as other information on the individual and cells from which the sequence was derived. The entry also provides links to all EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ entries. References are also provided for all alleles and where possible linked to the abstract of the paper in which the allele is first described, as provided by PubMed. The nucleotide and protein sequences are also provided in the standard format used in the IMGT/HLA database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla/nomen_pt2.html).

The database provides a tool for viewing sequence alignments based on the official HLA sequences. The interface provided lets the user define a number of key variables. The basic steps in selecting an alignment are to choose the loci and the type of sequence. The types of alignment available currently include coding sequences, genomic sequences and amino acid sequences. The remaining options available allow the user to customize the output to include optional reference sequences, sequence display and selection of specific sequences.

The database also provides a range of search tools. Through a collaboration with the EBI, users can search the IMGT/HLA database using the SRS Browser (10). Sequence similarity searches can also be performed using the BLAST (11) and FASTA (12) search tools. It is therefore recommended that for sequence similarity searches the IMGT/HLA database should be used wherever possible. BLAST searches using EMBL or other databases cannot guarantee to match against the official sequences.

Whilst most use of the database is confined to the sequence data, the database also contains additional background information, for example on the cells from which the alleles were characterized. Search and retrieval tools are provided to allow the user to query the data on all the cells from which a particular alleles has been sequenced. The IMGT/HLA database provides several tools to support the work of HLA typing laboratories, for example the characterization of ambiguities in Sequence Based Typing (SBT). Most SBT typing strategies currently employed use the exon 2 and exon 3 sequences for HLA class I analysis and exon 2 alone for HLA class II analysis. Due to the heterozygous nature of the SBT analysis the combinations of many pairs of alleles may give an ambiguous typing result. To aid the interpretation of SBT results, the database provides a comprehensive list of the ambiguous combinations for each locus.

As well as providing HLA sequences for retrieval, the IMGT/HLA website also provides the tools for submitting both new and confirmatory sequences to the WHO HLA Nomenclature Committee. This is now the only accepted method for submitting new sequences to the database. On submission of a sequence it is automatically analysed and annotated and then given a name, before been loaded into the IMGT/HLA database and included in the monthly nomenclature reports (13). The submission tool can be used for both new and confirmatory sequences, and is capable of holding confidential entries until a set time, thus allowing alleles to be named before publication. The submission of new HLA sequences to the IMGT/HLA database does not replace the submission of these sequences to EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ, as the submission criteria state that the sequences must also have been submitted to these databases.

IMGT/MHC ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT

The IMGT/HLA database provides a working system for study of the allelic sequences of selected genes of the human MHC region. Using this system as a model, a more wide-ranging project has been implemented. MHC sequences of many different species have been reported (14–16), and different nomenclature systems used in the naming and identification of new genes and alleles. The IMGT/MHC project works as a centralized platform for the collation and analysis of these sequences. By bringing the MHC sequences of different species together it is hoped to provide a central resource that will facilitate further research on the MHC of each species and on their comparison.

The first release of the IMGT/MHC database involves the work of research groups specializing in non-human primates, canines and felines. This release includes data from five species of ape, sixteen species of new world monkey, seventeen species of old world monkey, canines and felines. The nomenclature of each species is the responsibility of the species nomenclature committees (14–16). These committees prepare the allele information in a standardized format which allows it to be quickly loaded into the database and then published via the website.

For each species content varies but all these components of the web site have features in common, including taxonomic information and allele distributions. The sequence alignments and nomenclature reports are made available for online searches. The nomenclature reports provide details of the alleles, previous designations, EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ accession numbers and references (where possible linked to PubMed). The alignments follow the same format as that used in the IMGT/HLA database, which can itself be seen as a subset of IMGT/MHC.

The IMGT/MHC system has a standardized interface for viewing the alignments and nomenclature tables. The information available may vary between species depending on the data submitted by the appropriate nomenclature committee. In all species the loci and files available are determined by the species. Once a species is selected the user can select the type of data and locus. The interface is also included on the top of the output, to allow the user to perform multiple queries without returning to the main species index.

The initial release contains a limited number of species and a small number of tools. As the database grows and more species are added, many of the tools present in the IMGT/HLA system will be added to the IMGT/MHC website. The files will also be made available to download from the IMGT/MHC website, ftp server and included into SRS, BLAST and FASTA search engines.

DISCUSSION

Both databases provide high quality nucleotide and protein sequences with extensive background information. The IMGT/HLA database provides a centralized resource for everybody interested, either centrally or peripherally, in the HLA system. The database and accompanying tools allow the study of HLA alleles from a single site on the World Wide Web. The development of the potentially larger IMGT/MHC database will aid the development of similar projects in other species. The IMGT/MHC project will work as a centralized platform for the collation and analysis of these sequences. The primary use of the database will be to facilitate accurate and in-depth comparison of MHC sequences from different species. In order to achieve this aim the IMGT/MHC curators are already in contact with several other research groups and hope to include further species, such as chickens and horses in the near future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the support of the following organizations for the IMGT/HLA Database: Dynal, the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), the Anthony Nolan Trust (ANT), Biotest, the European Federation of Immunogenetics (EFI), Innogenetics, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Orchid Diagnostics, Forensic Analytical, Genovision and Pel-Freez.

APPENDIX—ACCESS AND CONTACT

IMGT/HLA Homepage: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla/

IMGT/HLA Submissions: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/hla/subs/submit.html

Contact: hladb{at}ebi.ac.uk

IMGT/MHC Homepage: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc/

Non-human primates: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc/nhp

Canines: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc/dla

Felines: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/imgt/mhc/fla

Contact: imgtmhc{at}ebi.ac.uk

REFERENCES

1. Charron,D. (1997) Genetic Diversity of HLA: Functional and Medical Implication. EDK, Paris, France.

2. Marsh,S.G.E., Parham,P. and Barber,L.D. (2000) HLA FactsBook. Academic Press, London, UK.

3. Marsh,S.G.E., Bodmer,J.G., Albert,E.D., Bodmer,W.F., Bontrop,R.E., Dupont,B., Erlich,H.A., Hansen,J.A., Mach,B., Mayr,W.R. et al. (2001) Nomenclature for factors of the HLA system, 2000. Tissue Antigens, 57, 236–283.[CrossRef][Medline]

4. Parham,P. (1999) Virtual reality in the MHC. Immunol. Rev., 167, 5–15.[Medline]

5. Stoesser,G., Baker,W., van den Broek,A., Camon,E., Garcia-Pastor,M., Kanz,C., Kulikova,T., Lombard,V., Lopez,R., Parkinson,H. et al. (2001) The EMBL nucleotide sequence database. Nucleic Acids Res., 29, 17–21.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

6. Benson,D.A., Karsch-Mizrachi,I., Lipman,D.J., Ostell,J., Rapp,B.A. and Wheeler,D.L. (2002) GenBank. Nucleic Acids Res., 30, 17–20.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

7. Tateno,Y., Imanishi,T., Miyazaki,S., Fukami-Kobayashi,K., Saitou,N., Sugawara,H. and Gojobori,T. (2002) DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) for genome scale research in life science. Nucleic Acids Res., 30, 27–30.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

8. Robinson,J., Malik,A., Parham,P., Bodmer,J.G. and Marsh,S.G.E. (2000) IMGT/HLA database—a sequence database for the human major histocompatibility complex. Tissue Antigens, 55, 280–287.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]

9. Robinson,J., Waller,M.J., Parham,P., Bodmer,J.G. and Marsh,S.G.E. (2001) IMGT/HLA Database—a sequence database for the human major histocompatibility complex. Nucleic Acids Res., 29, 210–213.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

10. Etzold,T., Ulyanov,A. and Argos,P. (1996) SRS: information retrieval system for molecular biology data banks. Methods Enzymol., 266, 114–128.[ISI][Medline]

11. Altschul,S.F., Gish,W., Miller,W., Myers,E.W. and Lipman,D.J. (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J. Mol. Biol., 215, 403–410.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]

12. Pearson,W.R. (1990) Rapid and sensitive sequence comparison with FASTP and FASTA. Methods Enzymol., 183, 63–98.[ISI][Medline]

13. Marsh,S.G.E. (2002) Nomenclature for factors of the HLA system, update April 2002. Hum. Immunol., 63, 795.[Medline]

14. Kennedy,L.J., Altet,L., Angles,J.M., Barnes,A., Carter,S.D., Francino,O., Gerlach,J.A., Happ,G.M., Ollier,W.E., Polvi,A. et al. (1999) Nomenclature for factors of the dog major histocompatibility system (DLA), 1998. First report of the ISAG DLA Nomenclature Committee. International Society for Animals Genetics. Tissue Antigens, 54, 312–321.[Medline]

15. Kennedy,L.J., Angles,J.M., Barnes,A., Carter,S.D., Francino,O., Gerlach,J.A., Happ,G.M., Ollier,W.E., Thomson,W. and Wagner,J.L. (2001) Nomenclature for factors of the dog major histocompatibility system (DLA), 2000: Second report of the ISAG DLA Nomenclature Committee. Tissue Antigens, 58, 55–70.[Medline]

16. Klein,J., Bontrop,R.E., Dawkins,R.L., Erlich,H.A., Gyllensten,U.B., Heise,E.R., Jones,P.P., Parham,P., Wakeland,E.K. and Watkins,D.I. (1990) Nomenclature for the major histocompatibility complexes of different species: a proposal. Immunogenetics, 31, 217–219.[ISI][Medline]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Robinson, M. J. Waller, S. C. Fail, H. McWilliam, R. Lopez, P. Parham, and S. G. E. Marsh The IMGT/HLA database Nucleic Acids Res., October 5, 2008; (2008) gkn662v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Escobar, D. K. Crockett, E. Reyes-Vargas, A. Baena, A. L. Rockwood, P. E. Jensen, and J. C. Delgado Large Scale Mass Spectrometric Profiling of Peptides Eluted from HLA Molecules Reveals N-Terminal-Extended Peptide Motifs J. Immunol., October 1, 2008; 181(7): 4874 - 4882. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Takuno, T. Nishio, Y. Satta, and H. Innan Preservation of a Pseudogene by Gene Conversion and Diversifying Selection Genetics, September 1, 2008; 180(1): 517 - 531. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. T. Chang, J. J. Linderman, and D. E. Kirschner Effect of Multiple Genetic Polymorphisms on Antigen Presentation and Susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection Infect. Immun., July 1, 2008; 76(7): 3221 - 3232. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. G. M. Doxiadis, N. de Groot, and R. E. Bontrop Impact of Endogenous Intronic Retroviruses on Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Diversity and Stability J. Virol., July 1, 2008; 82(13): 6667 - 6677. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Foley, D. De Santis, L. Lathbury, F. Christiansen, and C. Witt KIR2DS1-mediated activation overrides NKG2A-mediated inhibition in HLA-C C2-negative individuals Int. Immunol., April 1, 2008; 20(4): 555 - 563. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. K. Moesta, P. J. Norman, M. Yawata, N. Yawata, M. Gleimer, and P. Parham Synergistic Polymorphism at Two Positions Distal to the Ligand-Binding Site Makes KIR2DL2 a Stronger Receptor for HLA-C Than KIR2DL3 J. Immunol., March 15, 2008; 180(6): 3969 - 3979. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. P. Giraldo-Vela, R. Rudersdorf, C. Chung, Y. Qi, L. T. Wallace, B. Bimber, G. J. Borchardt, D. L. Fisk, C. E. Glidden, J. T. Loffredo, et al. The Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Alleles Mamu-DRB1*1003 and -DRB1*0306 Are Enriched in a Cohort of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Rhesus Macaque Elite Controllers J. Virol., January 15, 2008; 82(2): 859 - 870. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Niens, R. F. Jarrett, B. Hepkema, I. M. Nolte, A. Diepstra, M. Platteel, N. Kouprie, C. P. Delury, A. Gallagher, L. Visser, et al. HLA-A*02 is associated with a reduced risk and HLA-A*01 with an increased risk of developing EBV+ Hodgkin lymphoma Blood, November 1, 2007; 110(9): 3310 - 3315. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Kumar and D. Mohanty MODPROPEP: a program for knowledge-based modeling of protein-peptide complexes Nucleic Acids Res., July 13, 2007; 35(suppl_2): W549 - W555. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. L. Schaubert, D. A. Price, N. Frahm, J. Li, H. L. Ng, A. Joseph, E. Paul, B. Majumder, V. Ayyavoo, E. Gostick, et al. Availability of a Diversely Avid CD8+ T Cell Repertoire Specific for the Subdominant HLA-A2-Restricted HIV-1 Gag p2419-27 Epitope J. Immunol., June 15, 2007; 178(12): 7756 - 7766. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Z.-Q. Ye, S.-Q. Zhao, G. Gao, X.-Q. Liu, R. E. Langlois, H. Lu, and L. Wei Finding new structural and sequence attributes to predict possible disease association of single amino acid polymorphism (SAP) Bioinformatics, June 15, 2007; 23(12): 1444 - 1450. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. G. M. Doxiadis, N. de Groot, F. H. J. Claas, I. I. N. Doxiadis, J. J. van Rood, and R. E. Bontrop A highly divergent microsatellite facilitating fast and accurate DRB haplotyping in humans and rhesus macaques PNAS, May 22, 2007; 104(21): 8907 - 8912. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Culshaw, K. LaRosa, H. Tolani, X. Han, J. W. Eastcott, D. J. Smith, and M. A. Taubman Immunogenic and Protective Potential of Mutans Streptococcal Glucosyltransferase Peptide Constructs Selected by Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Allele Binding Infect. Immun., February 1, 2007; 75(2): 915 - 923. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H.-Q. Qu, Y. Lu, L. Marchand, F. Bacot, R. Frechette, M.-C. Tessier, A. Montpetit, and C. Polychronakos Genetic Control of Alternative Splicing in the TAP2 Gene: Possible Implication in the Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes Diabetes, January 1, 2007; 56(1): 270 - 275. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. M. O'Connor, K. J. Guinan, R. T. Cunningham, D. Middleton, P. Parham, and C. M. Gardiner Functional Polymorphism of the KIR3DL1/S1 Receptor on Human NK Cells J. Immunol., January 1, 2007; 178(1): 235 - 241. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. H. Mealey, J.-H. Lee, S. R. Leib, M. H. Littke, and T. C. McGuire A Single Amino Acid Difference within the {alpha}-2 Domain of Two Naturally Occurring Equine MHC Class I Molecules Alters the Recognition of Gag and Rev Epitopes by Equine Infectious Anemia Virus-Specific CTL J. Immunol., November 15, 2006; 177(10): 7377 - 7390. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. T. Chang, D. Ghosh, D. E. Kirschner, and J. J. Linderman Peptide length-based prediction of peptide-MHC class II binding Bioinformatics, November 15, 2006; 22(22): 2761 - 2767. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Llewelyn, S. Sriskandan, N. Terrazzini, J. Cohen, and D. M. Altmann The TCR V{beta} signature of bacterial superantigens spreads with stimulus strength Int. Immunol., October 1, 2006; 18(10): 1433 - 1441. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. G. M. Doxiadis, M. K. H. van der Wiel, H. P. M. Brok, N. G. de Groot, N. Otting, B. A. 't Hart, J. J. van Rood, and R. E. Bontrop Reactivation by exon shuffling of a conserved HLA-DR3-like pseudogene segment in a New World primate species PNAS, April 11, 2006; 103(15): 5864 - 5868. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Kralovicova and I. Vorechovsky Position-Dependent Repression and Promotion of DQB1 Intron 3 Splicing by GGGG Motifs J. Immunol., February 15, 2006; 176(4): 2381 - 2388. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Buch, B. Polic, B. E. Clausen, S. Weiss, O. Akilli-Ozturk, C.-H. Chang, R. Flavell, A. Schulz, S. Jonjic, A. Waisman, et al. MHC class II expression through a hitherto unknown pathway supports T helper cell-dependent immune responses: implications for MHC class II deficiency Blood, February 15, 2006; 107(4): 1434 - 1444. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. A. Ettinger, G. K. Papadopoulos, A. K. Moustakas, G. T. Nepom, and W. W. Kwok Allelic Variation in Key Peptide-Binding Pockets Discriminates between Closely Related Diabetes-Protective and Diabetes-Susceptible HLA-DQB1*06 Alleles J. Immunol., February 1, 2006; 176(3): 1988 - 1998. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. T. Barel, N. Pizzato, P. Le Bouteiller, E. J. H. J. Wiertz, and F. Lenfant Subtle sequence variation among MHC class I locus products greatly influences sensitivity to HCMV US2- and US11-mediated degradation Int. Immunol., January 1, 2006; 18(1): 173 - 182. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Frahm, S. Adams, P. Kiepiela, C. H. Linde, H. S. Hewitt, M. Lichterfeld, K. Sango, N. V. Brown, E. Pae, A. G. Wurcel, et al. HLA-B63 Presents HLA-B57/B58-Restricted Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Epitopes and Is Associated with Low Human Immunodeficiency Virus Load J. Virol., August 15, 2005; 79(16): 10218 - 10225. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I. A. Doytchinova and D. R. Flower In Silico Identification of Supertypes for Class II MHCs J. Immunol., June 1, 2005; 174(11): 7085 - 7095. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. G. de Groot, C. A. Garcia, E. J. Verschoor, G. G. M. Doxiadis, S. G. E. Marsh, N. Otting, and R. E. Bontrop Reduced MIC Gene Repertoire Variation in West African Chimpanzees as Compared to Humans Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2005; 22(6): 1375 - 1385. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. S. Clements, L. Kjer-Nielsen, L. Kostenko, H. L. Hoare, M. A. Dunstone, E. Moses, K. Freed, A. G. Brooks, J. Rossjohn, and J. McCluskey Crystal structure of HLA-G: A nonclassical MHC class I molecule expressed at the fetal-maternal interface PNAS, March 1, 2005; 102(9): 3360 - 3365. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Otting, C. M. C. Heijmans, R. C. Noort, N. G. de Groot, G. G. M. Doxiadis, J. J. van Rood, D. I. Watkins, and R. E. Bontrop Unparalleled complexity of the MHC class I region in rhesus macaques PNAS, February 1, 2005; 102(5): 1626 - 1631. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Robinson, M. J. Waller, P. Stoehr, and S. G. E. Marsh IPD--the Immuno Polymorphism Database Nucleic Acids Res., January 1, 2005; 33(suppl_1): D523 - D526. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M.-P. Lefranc, V. Giudicelli, Q. Kaas, E. Duprat, J. Jabado-Michaloud, D. Scaviner, C. Ginestoux, O. Clement, D. Chaume, and G. Lefranc IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system(R) Nucleic Acids Res., January 1, 2005; 33(suppl_1): D593 - D597. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Kralovicova, S. Houngninou-Molango, A. Kramer, and I. Vorechovsky Branch site haplotypes that control alternative splicing Hum. Mol. Genet., December 15, 2004; 13(24): 3189 - 3202. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. K. Baxter, S. J. Gagnon, R. L. Davis-Harrison, J. C. Beck, A.-K. Binz, R. V. Turner, W. E. Biddison, and B. M. Baker Strategic Mutations in the Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex HLA-A2 Independently Affect Both Peptide Binding and T Cell Receptor Recognition J. Biol. Chem., July 9, 2004; 279(28): 29175 - 29184. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				W. Y. Almawi, M. Busson, H. Tamim, E. M. Al-Harbi, R. R. Finan, S. F. Wakim-Ghorayeb, and A. A. Motala HLA Class II Profile and Distribution of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 Alleles and Haplotypes among Lebanese and Bahraini Arabs Clin. Vaccine Immunol., July 1, 2004; 11(4): 770 - 774. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				W. Helmberg, R. Dunivin, and M. Feolo The sequencing-based typing tool of dbMHC: typing highly polymorphic gene sequences Nucleic Acids Res., July 1, 2004; 32(suppl_2): W173 - W175. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. de Groot, G. G. Doxiadis, N. G. de Groot, N. Otting, C. Heijmans, A. J. M. Rouweler, and R. E. Bontrop Genetic Makeup of the DR Region in Rhesus Macaques: Gene Content, Transcripts, and Pseudogenes J. Immunol., May 15, 2004; 172(10): 6152 - 6157. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. J. Carven, S. Chitta, I. Hilgert, M. M. Rushe, R. F. Baggio, M. Palmer, J. E. Arenas, J. L. Strominger, V. Horejsi, L. Santambrogio, et al. Monoclonal Antibodies Specific for the Empty Conformation of HLA-DR1 Reveal Aspects of the Conformational Change Associated with Peptide Binding J. Biol. Chem., April 16, 2004; 279(16): 16561 - 16570. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I. A. Doytchinova, P. Guan, and D. R. Flower Identifiying Human MHC Supertypes Using Bioinformatic Methods J. Immunol., April 1, 2004; 172(7): 4314 - 4323. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Hulsmeyer, M. T. Fiorillo, F. Bettosini, R. Sorrentino, W. Saenger, A. Ziegler, and B. Uchanska-Ziegler Dual, HLA-B27 Subtype-dependent Conformation of a Self-peptide J. Exp. Med., January 20, 2004; 199(2): 271 - 281. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. T. Barel, M. Ressing, N. Pizzato, D. van Leeuwen, P. Le Bouteiller, F. Lenfant, and E. J. H. J. Wiertz Human Cytomegalovirus-Encoded US2 Differentially Affects Surface Expression of MHC Class I Locus Products and Targets Membrane-Bound, but Not Soluble HLA-G1 for Degradation J. Immunol., December 15, 2003; 171(12): 6757 - 6765. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. A. P. Lafont, A. Buckler-White, R. Plishka, C. Buckler, and M. A. Martin Characterization of Pig-Tailed Macaque Classical MHC Class I Genes: Implications for MHC Evolution and Antigen Presentation in Macaques J. Immunol., July 15, 2003; 171(2): 875 - 885. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Lopez, V. Silventoinen, S. Robinson, A. Kibria, and W. Gish WU-Blast2 server at the European Bioinformatics Institute Nucleic Acids Res., July 1, 2003; 31(13): 3795 - 3798. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

< This Article Abstract Print PDF (485K)