Discovery of the novel HLA-DRB1*09:01:08 allele in a Taiwanese volunteer bone marrow donor and identification of the probable HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 haplotype in association with DRB1*09:01:08.

We report here the novel variant of HLA-DRB1*09:01, DRB1*09:01:08, discovered in a Taiwanese volunteer bone marrow donor by a sequence-based typing (SBT) method. The DNA sequence of DRB1*09:01:08 is identical to the sequence of DRB1*09:01:02 in exon 2 except a silent mutation at nucleotide position 261(C→T) (GCC→GCT at codon 58). We hypothesize DRB1*09:01:08 was probably derived from DRB1*09:01:02 via a nucleotide point mutation event. The plausible HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 haplotype in association with DRB1*09:01:08 was deduced as A*02:07-B*46:01-DRB1*09:01:08.