Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from Michoacán, Mexico: Morelia and rural Michoacán

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 498 Mexicans from the state of Michoacan living in the city of Morelia (N = 150) and rural communities (N = 348), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We find that the ten most frequent haplotypes found in the state of Michoacan include 12 Native American and two European haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in the state of Michoacan are Native American (48.79 ± 1.44%) and European (43.10 ± 0.86%), while African genetic component is less apparent (8.11 ± 0.85%). Our findings add to the growing knowledge on the population genetics of Western Mexico and provide new HLA data on populations from Michoacan.