African populations harbor exceptional genetic diversity yet remain underrepresented in high-resolution human leukocyte antigen (HLA) datasets. This webinar presents two published articles from the AHRI Ndhlovu Lab characterizing HLA variation across Eastern and Southern Africa.
The first analyzed HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C data from 2,718 unrelated African participants from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and Zambia. This study showed population-genetic analyses of allele and haplotype frequencies and Hellinger distance revealed variation between countries and ethnic groups. South Africa showed the greatest estimated average diversity relative to the other African populations (34.1%), while estimated average diversity among sampled tribal groups was 51% in Kenya, 35.8% in Uganda and 33.2% in Zambia. Differences from US HLA datasets, including African American data, demonstrate the limitations of applying external HLA data to African vaccine design.
The second communication identified the novel HLA-E*01:152 allele in 12 of 580 individuals genotyped across Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, and Kenya. This allele was strongly associated with HLA-A*29:11. Together, these studies underscore the value of population-specific, high-resolution HLA analysis for documenting African immunogenetic diversity and previously unreported alleles, while expanding the evidence base relevant to African-focused immunological research and T-cell vaccine design.
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