Diversity of KIR, HLA Class I, and Their Interactions in Seven Populations of Sub-Saharan Africans

and sequences were determined for Dogon, Fulani, and Baka populations of western Africa, Mbuti of central Africa, and Datooga, Iraqw, and Hadza of eastern Africa. Study of 162 individuals identified 134 alleles (41 , 60 , and 33 ). Common to all populations are three alleles ( , , and ) but no or Unexpectedly, no novel was identified in these previously unstudied and anthropologically distinctive populations. In contrast, of 227 detected, 22 are present in all seven populations and 28 are novel. A high diversity of haplotypes was observed. In six populations, most haplotypes are represented just once. But in the Hadza, a majority of haplotypes occur more than once, with 2 having high frequencies and 10 having intermediate frequencies. The centromeric ( ) part of the locus exhibits an even balance between and in all seven populations. The telomeric ( ) part has an even balance of to in East Africa, but this changes across the continent to where is vestigial in West Africa. All four KIR ligands (A3/11, Bw4, C1, and C2) are present in six of the populations. haplotypes of the Iraqw and Hadza encode two KIR ligands, whereas the other populations have an even balance between haplotypes encoding one and two KIR ligands. Individuals in these African populations have a mean of 6.8-8.4 different interactions between KIR and HLA class I, compared with 2.9-6.5 for non-Africans.