Extended HLA haplotypes among the Bari Amerindians of the Perija Range. Relationship to other tribes based on four-loci haplotype frequencies.

Extended HLA haplotypes among Bari Amerindians living at the Perija Range on the limits between Colombia and Venezuela have been defined using serology for class I, electrophoresis and immuno-fixation for Bf and C4, and PCR-SSO for class II loci typing. Haplotypes were assigned based on family studies and gene frequencies were calculated using a subset of less related subjects selected from the genealogy. No rare class III variants were observed, but the characteristic low HLA diversity of isolated Amerindians populations present also in the Bari extends to Bf and C4. Thus there were only 22 different haplotypes segregating in families when nine loci were considered. All of them except three carried BfS, C4A3, C4B1. The null allele C4AQ0 reached a frequency of 0.147 and was predominantly present in A24 Cw7 B39 DRB1*0411 haplotypes. In contrast to what has been reported using HLA alleles or class I haplotype frequencies and other isolated South American tribes, genetic distance estimates based on A-Cw-B-DR haplotype frequencies show a closer relationship between the two linguistically but geographically distant Venezuelan tribes, the Bari and the Warao, as compared to two culturally different Brazilian populations. The information reported here will be useful for identifying ancestral haplotypes in native peoples of America, for population comparison, and for discussing the differential influence of MHC haplotype diversity and population survival when similar data on other Amerindian tribes becomes available.