A comprehensive study of polymorphic sites along the HLA-G gene: implication for gene regulation and evolution

Mol Biol Evol. 2011 Nov;28(11):3069-86. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msr138. Epub 2011 May 28.

Abstract

HLA-G molecule plays an important role on immune response regulation and has been implicated on the inhibition of T and natural killer cell cytolytic function and inhibition of allogeneic T-cell proliferation. Due to its immune-modulator properties, the HLA-G gene expression has been associated with the outcome of allograft and of autoimmune, infectious, and malignant disorders. Several lines of evidence indicate that HLA-G polymorphisms at the 5'-upstream regulatory region (5' URR) and 3'-untranslated region (3' UTR) may influence the HLA-G expression levels. Because Brazilians represent one of the most heterogeneous populations in the world with the widest HLA-G coding region variability already detected among the studied populations, a high level of variability and haplotype diversity would be expected in Brazilians. On this basis, the 5' URR, coding, and 3' UTR variability were evaluated in a Brazilian series consisting of 100 healthy bone marrow donors, as well as the linkage disequilibrium pattern along the gene and the extended haplotypes encompassing several gene segment variations. The HLA-G locus seems to present six different HLA-G lineages showing functional variations mainly in nucleotides of the regulatory regions. Differences were observed at the 5' URR in positions that either coincide with or are close to transcription factor-binding sites and at the 3' UTR mainly in positions that have already been reported to influence HLA-G mRNA availability. We report several lines of evidence for balancing selection acting on the regulatory regions, which may indicate that these HLA-G lineages may be related to the differential HLA-G expression profiles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Brazil
  • DNA Primers / genetics
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Gene Expression Regulation / genetics*
  • Genetic Variation*
  • HLA-G Antigens / genetics*
  • Haplotypes / genetics
  • Humans
  • Linkage Disequilibrium
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Polymorphism, Genetic*
  • Selection, Genetic*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • HLA-G Antigens