Using exome and amplicon-based sequencing data for high-resolution HLA typing with ATHLATES

Abstract

ATHLATES (accurate typing of human leukocyte antigen through exome sequencing) was originally developed to analyze whole-exome sequencing (exome-seq) data from the Illumina platform and to predict the HLA genotype at 2-field or higher resolution. HLA locus-specific reads are first collected by stringent read mapping to the IMGT/HLA database. ATHLATES then performs read assembly, candidate allele identification, and genotype inference. Here, we describe the protocol of using ATHLATES for the above purpose and expand the application to analyze targeted sequencing data using amplicons of full HLA genes.