MHC class I allele diversity in cynomolgus macaques of Vietnamese origin.

Cynomolgus macaques (, ) have been used as important experimental animal models for carrying out biomedical researches. The results of biomedical experiments strongly depend on the immunogenetic background of animals, especially on the diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) alleles. However, there is much less information available on the polymorphism of MHC class I genes in cynomolgus macaques, than is currently available for humans. In this study, we have identified 40 and 60 exons 2 and 3 sequences from 30 unrelated cynomolgus macaques of Vietnamese origin. Among these alleles, 28 are novel. As for the remaining 72 known alleles, 15 alleles are shared with other cynomolgus macaque populations and 32 are identical to alleles previously reported in other macaque species. A potential recombination event was observed between and . In addition, the genes were found to be more diverse than human and the functional residues for peptide binding sites (PBS) or TCR binding sites (TBS) in have greater variability than that for non-PBS or non-TBS regions. Overall, this study provides important information on the diversity of and alleles from Vietnamese origin, which may help researchers to choose the most appropriate animals for their studies.