DNA polymorphisms associated with HLA-B-like genes and evidence for a duplication of B40 genes detected with an HLA-B-specific DNA probe.

Analysis of polymorphic DNA endonuclease restriction fragments by Southern blotting indicates that the genetic complexity of the HLA class I gene family is larger than the complexity indicated by serologically defined HLA-A, -B and -C gene products (Orr et al., 1982). There are correlations between polymorphic restriction endonuclease fragments in a limited number of HLA class I alleles; in fact, a few alleles in the population have been correlated with the presence of polymorphic DNA fragments (Cann et al., 1983; Cohen et al., 1983; Orr & De Mars, 1983; Lucotte, Coulondre & Salmon, 1985; Driesel et al., 1985). Recently, probes shown to be specific for HLA-A and HLA-B genes (Grumet et al., 1983; Koller et al., 1985) were constructed from the 3'-untranslated region of these genes.