HLA-B and HLA-C alleles and haplotypes in the Dravidian tribal populations of southern India

The Dravidians are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of India. Their subsequent migration and admixture with invading racial groups has been of scientific interest for population geneticists. In the present study, seven highly endogamous and extremely isolated colonies of Dravidian tribal populations (n = 105) from Kerala in South India were analysed and compared with random non-tribal Dravidian (RND) samples (n = 78) of southern India using the polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer method for HLA-B and HLA-C typing. The tribal group comprises Adiya, Kanikkar, Kattunaikka, Kuruma, Kurichiya, Malapandaram and Paniya, while the RND group includes Malayalam-speaking individuals from various non-tribal castes of Kerala selected randomly. Some of the most frequent HLA-B alleles in the RND population were similar to the North Indian population and included B*07, B*61 (B*40), B*44, B*51, B*35 and B*52. Although B*61 was the most frequent allele in our total study population, the frequency fluctuated in individual populations. HLA-Cw*14 was one of the most frequent alleles while HLA-Cw*17 was totally absent in all populations studied. The haplotype B*61-Cw*14 was present in all the study groups except in Kurichiya, and the haplotype B*51-Cw*14 was only absent in Kattunaikka. Phylogenetic tree and correspondence analysis indicate that all the Dravidian tribal communities group together as a separate cluster, while the RND group of individuals from South India lie close to the North Indian population. This suggests that the RND population of South India might have a crypto-Dravidian origin, while the smaller Dravidian tribal communities have a distinct Dravidian origin.