HLA-A an (
human leukocyte antigen) belongs to the
MHC class I heavy chain
receptors. The HLA-A is a
heterodimeric receptor consisting of a HLA-A mature gene product and β2-microglobulin. The mature A chain is anchored in the membrane. MHC Class I molecules, like HLA-A, are expressed in nearly all cells, and present small peptides to the immune system which surveys for non-self peptides. As in most mammalian populations, MHC Class I molecules are extremely variable in their
primary structure, and HLA-A is rank amoung the genes in humans with the fastest evolving coding sequence. After typing millions of individuals, as of 10/15/2007 617 variant
alleles have been identified, encoding for 486 protien
isoforms.
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