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Abstract: A member of a new HLA‐Alocus family, HLA‐A *8001, has been characterized from 3 African‐American individuals expressing a unique HLA‐Aserologic specificity. The HLA‐A *8001sequence is most closely related to alleles of the HLA‐A1/3/11family, although it also contains residues characteristic of the HLA‐A2/28, ‐A9, ‐A10, and ‐A19families. More importantly, the HLA‐A*8001sequence contains four unique nonsynonymous (amino acid replacing) nucleotide substitutions absent from all other primate Alocus alleles. In addition, five other nucleotide substitutions, four nonsynonymous and one synonymous (silent). observed only in non‐human primate Alocus alleles were found. Neighbor‐joining tree analysis of HLA‐A *8001supports the notion that the HLA‐A *8001allele is a member of a new HLA‐Alocus family which was derived from the ancestral A3 lineage but diverged early in the evolution of the HLA‐Alocus.