Continue to focus clinical decision-making on the antigen recognition domain for the present.

Next generation DNA sequencing has facilitated the routine characterization of complete HLA gene sequences. These data complement structural and functional studies of HLA elements encoded outside of the exons specifying the antigen recognition domain. This commentary is focused on evaluating whether the interpretation of HLA clinical typing results should expand the region of the HLA gene considered in the assignment from the exon(s) encoding the antigen recognition domain to the full gene sequence. Our recommendation is that, at present, there is insufficient data to support considering variation in the regions outside of the antigen recognition domain in clinical decision-making.