MHC CLASS II ALLELES AND HAPLOTYPES OF 411 INDIVIDUALS OF AFRICAN ORIGIN
IN COLOMBIA.
Emilio. J. Yunis1, Martha. L. Camargo1.,
and Juan J. Yunis1. 1Instituto de Genética,
Universidad Nacional de Colombia., Bogota, Colombia
After the discovery of America in 1492, thousands of individuals
of African Origin were brought as slaves to work in the fields and mines
of Colombia. The port of entrance for these individuals were the cities
of Cartagena and Santa Martha in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. From
there, they were transferred to Popayan, the slavery capital of Colombia
during the colony period in the southwest part of the country. The Slaves
were then distributed to work in the gold mines of Choco and Antioquia,
as well as to work in the fields of the neighboring states. We have analyzed
411 African-Colombian individuals from 6 cities of the Choco Department
of Colombia, one from the Cauca Department and one from the Baru island
near Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. MHC class II alleles (DRB, DQA1
and DQB1) and haplotypes were determined by PCR amplification of the second
exon of MHC class II genes followed by hybridization with sequence specific
oligonucleotide probes and chemiluminescent detection. High resolution
typing was performed for alleles of the DRB1*04, 08, 15, 16, 03, 11, 13
and 14 groups. A high degree of MHC class II haplotype diversity was found.
A total of 97 MHC class II haplotypes were identified. The most polymorphic
group of haplotypes was the DRB1*13 group, followed by the DRB1*04 group.
One hypothesis for the high degree of MHC class II heterogeneity could
be due to the fact that during the slavery process, individuals speaking
the same language were separated in an effort to eliminate emancipation
movements. Due to the fact that the original founding population brought
from Africa was highly diverse, this process of "admixture" would explain
the high degree of genetic heterogeneity observed.