ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2012
Distinct evolutionary strategies of human leucocyte antigen loci in pathogen-rich environments.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Strategies to work with HLA data in human populations for histocompatibility, clinical transplantation, epidemiology and population genetics: HLA-NET methodological recommendations.International journal of immunogenetics · 2012Guideline
- Ancient genomics study reveals low HLA diversity in eastern hunter-gatherers.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Investigating HLA haplotypes as a potential risk factor for nodding syndrome: A case-control study in the Mahenge area, Tanzania.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- The Influence of HLA Polymorphisms on the Severity of COVID-19 in the Romanian Population.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- An HLA map of the world: A comparison of HLA frequencies in 200 worldwide populations reveals diverse patterns for class I and class II.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Article
- Schizophrenia, Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA), and Herpes Viruses: Immunogenetic Associations at the Population Level.Neuroscience insights · 2023Article
- Human HLA prolongs the host inflammatory response inFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
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- Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) System: Genetics and Association with Bacterial and Viral Infections.Journal of immunology research · 2022Review
- High Resolution HLA ∼A, ∼B, ∼C, ∼DRB1, ∼DQA1, and ∼DQB1 Diversity in South African Populations.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
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- Immunogenetic Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis in 14 Continental Western European Countries.Journal of immunological sciences · 2021Article
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- Immunogenetic Epidemiology of Dementia and Parkinson's Disease in 14 Continental European Countries: Shared Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Profiles.Journal of immunological sciences · 2021Article
- Association of Dementia Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Profile with Human Herpes Viruses 3 and 7: An in silico Investigation.Journal of immunological sciences · 2021Article
- Identification of novel prognosis-related genes in the endometrial cancer immune microenvironment.Aging · 2020Article
- Similar patterns of genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium in Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and humans indicate highly conserved mechanisms of MHC molecular evolution.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Diversity of HLA Class I and Class II blocks and conserved extended haplotypes in Lacandon Mayans.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Virus-Host Coevolution with a Focus on Animal and Human DNA Viruses.Journal of molecular evolution · 2020Review
- Type 1 diabetes loci display a variety of native American and African ancestries in diseased individuals from Northwest Colombia.World journal of diabetes · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) loci have a complex evolution where both stochastic (e.g. genetic drift) and deterministic (natural selection) forces are involved. Owing to their extraordinary level of polymorphism, HLA genes are useful markers for reconstructing human settlement history. However, HLA variation often deviates significantly from neutral expectations towards an excess of genetic diversity. Because HLA molecules play a crucial role in immunity, this observation is generally explained by pathogen-driven-balancing selection (PDBS). In this study, we investigate the PDBS model by analysing HLA allelic diversity on a large database of 535 populations in relation to pathogen richness. Our results confirm that geographical distances are excellent predictors of HLA genetic differentiation worldwide. We also find a significant positive correlation between genetic diversity and pathogen richness at two HLA class I loci (HLA-A and -B), as predicted by PDBS, and a significant negative correlation at one HLA class II locus (HLA-DQB1). Although these effects are weak, as shown by a loss of significance when populations submitted to rapid genetic drift are removed from the analysis, the inverse relationship between genetic diversity and pathogen richness at different loci indicates that HLA genes have adopted distinct evolutionary strategies to provide immune protection in pathogen-rich environments.
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