HLA polymorphisms in ethnic groups from Pakistan

HE HUMAN leukocyte antigen (HLA) system isamong the most polymorphic in the human genome.This polymorphism makes it possible to study the geneticrelatedness and ancestral origins of different ethnic groupsbased on their characteristic allele frequencies and ex-tended haplotypes.The HLA data of three northern Pakistani populations—the Burusho, Pathans, and Kalash—are presented here.The Burusho are of special interest because of their lan-guage, Burushaski, is one of few remaining language iso-lates in the world. Not much is known about the origin ofthe Burusho, but according to legend they are descendantsof soldiers of Alexander the Great. The Pathans, collectedfrom the NWFP, are said to be the progeny of the lost tribeof Israel. The Kalash Kafirs are thought to be of Greekorigin having descended from soldiers of Alexander theGreat, though some literature points towards a Slavicorigin.These populations were typed for HLA-A, HLA-B,HLA-C, DRB1, DRB3, DRB4, DRB5, and DQB1 usingPCR-SSP with 144 primer mixes using the method de-scribed by Bunce et al.