# filename: 17IHIWS_Reference_README.txt
# date: 2016-10-06
# version: 1.0
# author: Steven J. Mack<SJMACK@CHORI.ORG>
# source: 
This file is meant to accompany and explain two other files:
17IHIWS_Reference_Alleles.txt is a tab-delimited text file that identifies all 75 17th IHIWS reference alleles by their locus, IMGT/HLA Database version 3.25.0 accession number and allele name, and reference category.
17IHIWS_Reference_Categories.txt is a tab-delimited text file that identifies the reference alleles in each of 99 17th IHIWS reference categories by their locus, IMGT/HLA Database version 3.25.0 accession number and allele name.

Each reference allele has a full-length genomic sequence in IMGT/HLA Database release version 3.25.0.

Each reference allele can belong to multiple reference categories. Some reference alleles are used by the IMGT/HLA Database as a locus-level reference, and can also serve as an allele-family reference. For example, HLA-A*01:01:01:01 is the IMGT/HLA Database’s reference allele for the HLA-A locus, and can serve as the reference allele for all HLA-A*01 alleles. 

Not all of the locus-level reference alleles used by the IMGT/HLA Database have full-length genomic sequences; in the cases of the HLA-DPA1 and HLA-DPB1 loci, IHIWS Locus Reference alleles with full-length genomic sequences have been identified.

In some cases (e.g., for alleles in the DRB1*10 allele family), no allele-family reference has been identified. In these cases, the locus-level reference should be used for these alleles.

No allele-family reference alleles are identified for the HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 loci. The locus-level reference should be used for alleles at these loci.

Please use these reference alleles and categories for 17th IHIWS consensus sequence reporting; no other reference alleles or categories should be used to report consensus sequence for the 17th IHIWS.