Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from Oaxaca, Mexico: Oaxaca city and rural Oaxaca

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 636 Mexicans from the state of Oaxaca living in the city of Oaxaca (N = 151) and rural communities (N = 485), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We found that the 13 most frequent haplotypes in Oaxaca are all of putative Native American origin. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in the state of Oaxaca are Native American (73.12 ± 2.77% by ML; 61.52% of Native American haplotypes) and European (17.36 ± 2.07% by ML; 20.69% of European haplotypes), and a relatively high African genetic component (9.52 ± 0.88% by ML; 8.94% of African haplotypes).