Experience of Genotyping of the Class 1 Major Histocompatibility Complex Genes in a Rhesus Macaques Collection

The utility of animal models in preclinical research depends on the completeness of our knowledge about these models. Nonhuman primates are the closest animal model to humans, available for preclinical evaluation of biotechnological products. The lack of immunogenetic characteristics of the primates used in a particular study significantly limits the possibilities of analyzing the results obtained. The availability of information about the haplotype of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) increases the overall significance of the model. Genotyping of primates at the MHC locus by DNA analysis is excluded, since the representation of individual MHC proteins depends on the level of their expression in immune cells, rather than on their presence in the genome. Therefore, the genotyping of primates at the MHC locus is carried out by analyzing mRNA encoding allelic variants of proteins. This work presents the results of genotyping of a sample of rhesus macaques from the collection of the Kurchatov Complex of Medical Primatology by a next-generation sequencing technology using an IonProton sequencer.