A major histocompatibility complex class I allele shared by two species of chimpanzee

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Cooper, Stewart Adams, Erin J. Wells, Randall S. Walker, Christopher M. Parham, Peter
Copyright Year	1998
Abstract	Abstract Little is known regarding the rates at which natural selection can modify or retain antigen presenting alleles at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Discovery of identical [1101 base pairs (bp)] coding regions at the MHC class I C locus in Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus, chimpanzee species that diverged ∼2.3 million years ago, now indicates that a class I allotype can survive for at least this period. Remarkable conservation was also reflected in the (1799 bp) introns where a maximum of only six substitutions distinguished five alleles (three from P. troglodytes and two from P. paniscus) that encoded the identical heavy chain allotype. Analysis of a more distantly related human allele, HLA-Cw*0702, corroborated that intron variation was non-uniform along the gene. Thus we provide a clear reference frame for the lifetime of an MHC class I allotype, a direct estimate of allelic substitution rates, and evidence for an unusual evolution of MHC class I introns.
Starting Page	212
Ending Page	217
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1007/s002510050350
PubMed reference number	9435339
Journal	Medline
Volume Number	47
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://page-one.springer.com/pdf/preview/10.1007/s002510050350
Journal	Immunogenetics
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article