Human leukocyte antigen class I polymorphism in Miao, Bouyei, and Shui ethnic minorities of Guizhou, China.

The majority of Miaos, Bouyeis, and Shuis are distributed in the Guizhou province of southwest China. They live within vast areas, while each ethnicity lives in individual concentrated communities in small areas. Their origin, migration, and relationship have long been interesting to anthropologists. In the present study, polymorphism of HLA-A, -B, and -C genes was investigated using the sequencing-based typing method in the Miao, Bouyei, and Shui from Guizhou, southwest China. Generally, Miao, Bouyei, and Shui share the most high-frequency alleles, suggesting that these three ethnic groups might be subject to intensive gene exchange because of their close location. However, it appears that some alleles distribute ethnic-specifically for each ethnicity. The dendrogram constructed according to the neighbor-joining method demonstrates that Miao, Bouyei, and Shui cluster together and form a branch with other southern Chinese ethnic groups, indicating that Miao, Bouyei, and Shui are three genetically close ethnic groups and inherit more characteristics of southern Chinese populations. The study will increase our understanding of the HLA polymorphism in Chinese populations.