Human HLA genes - the genes that allow our immune system to tell the difference between our own cells and foreign invaders - are evolving much more rapidly than previously thought, according to an article online on August 3rd in Trends in Genetics.The resulting degree of variation improves our ability to fight off disease, but could also present challenges to current worldwide efforts aimed at identifying potential donors for patients undergoing stem cell transplantation.
"This new work makes clear the daunting and near hopeless challenge of keeping track of the continuous output from the HLA mutational spigot," says first author William Klitz, from the University of California, Berkeley.
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