Linkage disequilibrium of polymorphic RAET1 genes in Thais.

ABSTRACT

Retinoic acid early transcripts-1 (RAET1) or unique long 16 (UL-16) binding proteins (ULBPs) is a gene cluster encoding for molecules acting as ligands to natural killer group 2 D (NKG2D), a receptor expressed on immune cells. Binding of these ligands to the receptor activates immune cells leading to killing of tumor cells and also viral-infected cells. The information on polymorphism of RAET1 is limited. In this report, we analyze the linkages between four polymorphic RAET1 genes RAET1E, RAET1G, RAET1H and RAET1L, in 318 unrelated Thais. The strongest linkage disequilibrium was found between RAET1E and RAET1G, with P-value, D' and r(2) of <5.0 x 10(-5), 0.707 and 0.840, respectively. RAET1E(*)001 was found to be in linkage disequilibrium with RAET1G(*)002, and RAET1E(*)002 with RAET1G(*)001. Evidently, there were possible RAET1 haplotypes with haplotype frequencies of more than 10% consisting of RAET1E(*)001; RAET1G(*)002; RAET1H(*)001; RAET1L(*)001 and RAET1E(*)002; RAET1G(*)001; RAET1H(*)002; RAET1L(*)003. This study provides basic information on polymorphisms of RAET1 and possible RAET1 haplotypes in Thais.