Nature 357, 326 - 329 (28 May 1992); doi:10.1038/357326a0

Unusual HLA-B alleles in two tribes of Brazilian Indians

Mônica P. Belich^*†, J. Alejandro Madrigal^*, William H. Hildebrand^*, Jacqueline Zemmour^*, Robert C. Williams^‡, Roberta Luz^†, Maria Luiza Petzl-Erler & Peter Parham^*

^*Departments of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
^†Department of Genetics, Federal University of Paraná, 81531 Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
^‡Histocompatibility Laboratory, Blood Systems Inc., 6220 East Oak Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85257, USA

THE Kaingang and Guarani are culturally and linguistically distinct tribes of southern Brazil^1,2. Like all Amerindian groups^3,4 they show limited HLA polymorphism, which probably reflects the small founder populations that colonized America by overland migration from Asia 11,000–40,000 years ago,^5,6 We find the nucleotide sequences of HLA-B alleles from the Kaingang and Guarani to be distinct from those characterized in Caucasian, oriental and other populations⁷. By comparison, the HLA-A and C alleles are familiar. These results and those reported in the accompanying paper⁸ on the Waorani of Ecuador reveal that a marked evolution of HLA-B has occurred since humans first entered South America. New alleles have been formed through recombination between pre-existing alleles, not by point mutation, giving rise to distinctive diversification of HLA-B in different South American Indian tribes.

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