Identification of an HLA-B*07 allele variant (B*0740) in the Chinese Han population.

A novel HLA-B*07 allele, B*0740, has been identified by sequence-based typing (SBT) in the Chinese Han population. This new allele is identical to B*0705 and B*0706 for exons 2, 3, and 4, except for a single nucleotide at position 605 of codon 202 in exon 3 (AAG-->ATG) leading to an amino acid change from lysine to methionine. SBT was performed following allele separation using the Haploprep method. The serological equivalence of B*0740 to the B7 antigen did not change.