HLA-C locus allelic dropout in Sanger sequence-based typing due to intronic single nucleotide polymorphism.

We report a novel HLA-C allele that was identified during routine HLA typing using sequence-based methods. The patient was initially typed as a C*06:02, 06:04 with two nucleotide mismatches in exon 3, (C to T and T to G changes) which would have resulted in a non-synonymous mutation of a leucine residue being replaced with tryptophan. Further resolution of the patient's type by using sequence-specific primers (SSP) revealed that the companion allele to C*06:02 was a novel C*17:01.