Objective: To understand with greater clearness the genetic polymorphism of (GCT)n repeat of MHC class I chain-related gene A (MICA)in some Chinese populations and provide preliminary genetic evidence for the independent origin of Chinese Baima Tibetan (BMT).
Methods: ACD-blood or saliva specimens of 411 unrelated individuals from four Chinese populations were collected. A primer pair spanning exon 5 of MICA gene was used to amplify the GCT region. Alleles were detected by PCR and denaturing PAGE. Comparison of the allelic distributions among the four populations was carried out.
Results: Five previously reported alleles have been observed in all the four populations, but the allelic distributions are different from one another. The most frequent allele is the A5 in all the four populations (0.325 in BMT, 0.345 in Tibetans, 0.390 in Chengdu Hans and 0.319 in Qiangs). A5.1 allele is the second most frequent allele in Chengdu Hans (0.230) and in Qiangs (0.293), while the second most frequent alleles for BMT and Tibetans are A4 (0.254) and A9 (0.272) respectively. The distribution of alleles in BMT is significantly different from that in the other three populations.
Conclusion: Alleles of MICA gene exon 5 are conservative in all populations studied so far. The results suggest that genetically BMT might be an independent ethnic population.