The nucleotide sequence of the bovine MHC class II alpha genes: DRA, DOA, and DYA.

The nucleotide sequence of the exons 2, 3, and 4, and parts of the intervening sequences of a BoLA-DRA and -DQA gene and one other class II BoLA-A gene have been determined. The structure of the BoLA-DRA and -DQA gene was found to be very similar to that of the corresponding human HLA class II genes. An analysis of the structure of the other class II BoLA-A gene showed that this A gene was clearly very different from both the human A genes and the bovine DRA and DQA genes. The results indicate that this other type of class II A gene probably represents the class II gene that has already been identified in restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) studies as BoLA-DYA. Since no clear homologue of this presumed BoLA-DYA gene was found among the human HLA class II genes, these results indicate that, at least as far as the A genes are concerned, a distinct class II gene is present in cattle.