Deep sequencing of the MHC region in the Chinese population contributes to studies of complex disease.

Publisher:
Springer Nature
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Citation:
Nat Genet, 2016, 48, (7), pp. 740-746
Issue Date:
2016-07
Full metadata record
The human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region has been shown to be associated with numerous diseases. However, it remains a challenge to pinpoint the causal variants for these associations because of the extreme complexity of the region. We thus sequenced the entire 5-Mb MHC region in 20,635 individuals of Han Chinese ancestry (10,689 controls and 9,946 patients with psoriasis) and constructed a Han-MHC database that includes both variants and HLA gene typing results of high accuracy. We further identified multiple independent new susceptibility loci in HLA-C, HLA-B, HLA-DPB1 and BTNL2 and an intergenic variant, rs118179173, associated with psoriasis and confirmed the well-established risk allele HLA-C*06:02. We anticipate that our Han-MHC reference panel built by deep sequencing of a large number of samples will serve as a useful tool for investigating the role of the MHC region in a variety of diseases and thus advance understanding of the pathogenesis of these disorders.
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