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While the success of allogeneic stem cell transplantation depends on a high degree of HLA compatibility between donor and patient, finding a suitable donor remains challenging due to the hyperpolymorphic nature of HLA genes. We calculated high‐resolution allele, haplotype and phenotype frequencies for HLA‐A, ‐C, ‐B, ‐DRB1 and ‐DQB1 for 10 subpopulations of the Anthony Nolan (AN) register using an in‐house expectation‐maximisation (EM) algorithm run on mixed resolution HLA data, covering 676 155 individuals. Sample sizes range from 599 410 for British/Irish North West European (BINWE) individuals, the largest subpopulation in the United Kingdom to 1105 for the British Bangladeshi population. Calculation of genetic distance between the subpopulations based on haplotype frequencies shows three broad clusters, each following a major continental group: European, African and Asian. We further analysed the HLA haplotype and phenotype diversity of each subpopulation, and found that 35.52% of BINWE individuals ranging to 98.34% of Middle Eastern individuals on the register had a unique phenotype within their subpopulation. These analyses and the allele, haplotype and phenotype frequency data of the subpopulation on the AN register are a valuable resource in understanding the HLA diversity in the United Kingdom and can be used to improve the accuracy of match likelihoods and to inform future donor recruitment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a genotyping assay that produces fully phased, unambiguous HLA‐E genotyping using Pacific Biosciences' single molecule real‐time DNA sequencing. In total 212 cell lines were genotyped, including the panel of 107 established at the 10th International Histocompatibility Workshop. Our results matched the previously known HLA‐E genotype in 94 (44.3%) cell lines, in all cases either improving or equalling previous genotyping resolution. Three (1.4%) cells had discrepant HLA‐E genotyping data and 115 (54.2%) had no previous HLA‐E data. The HLA‐E genotypes for four (1.9%) cell lines resulted in a change of zygosity by identifying two distinct haplotypes. We discovered eight novel HLA‐E alleles, extended the known reference sequence of seven and confirmed the existence of a further 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]