Mapping of the genes encoding the HLA-DR alpha chain and the HLA-related antigens to a chromosome 6 deletion by using genomic blotting.

We have used genomic blotting with DNA from a human cell line that has a small deletion on chromosome 6 (6.3.6) and from its parent cell line (T5-1) to map DNA fragments complementary to cloned DNA sequences encoding the HLA-B7 antigen (class I) and the alpha chain of the HLA-DR antigen (class II). The 6.3.6 variant fails to express the HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DR and MB specificities associated with one of the parental T5-1 haplotypes and has a visible deletion in the short arm of one chromosome 6 (1). The gene locus assignment was based on the expectation that, if the chromosomal location of the DNA sequences used as a hybridization probe were within the deletion, then the relative amount or size (or both) of genomic restriction fragments that hybridize to the probe in T5-1 and in 6.3.6 DNAs should differ predictably. By comparing the genomic blot patterns from T5-1 and 6.3.6 DNAs, we have shown directly that the loss of haplotype expression was due to deletion of the structural genes and have mapped the structural gene for the HLA-DR alpha chain to the chromosomal location (6p2105-6p23) defined by the 6.3.6 deletion. A cDNA clone encoding the alpha chain of the HLA-DR antigen hybridized to two genomic fragments, 4.2 and 3.8 kilobases long, generated by Bgl II digestion of T5-1 DNA. The 4.2-kilobase fragment was absent from DNA derived from the 6.3.6 deletion variant. Thus, this fragment could be assigned to the parental chromosome 6 with the A1, B8, DR3 haplotype, and the 3.8-kilobase fragment, to the chromosome 6 with the A2, B27, DR1 haplotype. In addition, comparison of the T5-1 and 6.3.6 genomic blot patterns obtained with the HLA-B7 probe revealed dosage differences for all of the class I genomic fragments generated by BamHI digestion, suggesting that all of the class I loci map to the region 6p2105-6p23.