Allele Frequency Net Database.

The allele frequency net database (AFND, http://www.allelefrequencies.net ) is an online web-based repository that contains information on the frequencies of immune-related genes and their corresponding alleles in worldwide human populations. At present, the system contains data from 1505 populations in more than ten million individuals on the frequency of genes from different polymorphic regions including data for the human leukocyte antigens (HLA) system. This resource has been widely used in a variety of contexts such as histocompatibility, immunology, epidemiology, pharmacogenetics, and population genetics, among many others. In this chapter, we present some of the more commonly used searching mechanisms and some of the most recent developments included in AFND.