Genotype List String 1.1: Extending the Genotype List String grammar for describing HLA and Killer‐cell Immunoglobulin‐like Receptor genotypes

Abstract

The Genotype List (GL) String grammar for reporting HLA and Killer‐cell Immunoglobulin‐like Receptor (KIR) genotypes in a text string was described in 2013. Since this initial description, GL Strings have been used to describe HLA and KIR genotypes for more than 40 million subjects, allowing these data to be recorded, stored and transmitted in an easily parsed, text‐based format. After a decade of working with HLA and KIR data in GL String format, with advances in HLA and KIR genotyping technologies that have fostered the generation of full‐gene sequence data, the need for an extension of the GL String system has become clear. Here, we introduce the new GL String delimiter “?,” which addresses the need to describe ambiguity in assigning a gene sequence to gene paralogs. GL Strings that do not include a “?” delimiter continue to be interpreted as originally described. This extension represents version 1.1 of the GL String grammar.