Rodents have a family of over 9 lectin genes related to the Ly49 locus. Westgaard et al. (1998) identified an Ly49-related sequence in the human and designated the gene LY49L, also called KLRA1. Barten and Trowsdale (1999) showed that the genomic organization of the human LY49L gene is similar to that of the mouse homolog; however, exon 5 continues over a splice junction into the downstream intron and runs into a premature stop codon. They partially sequenced 2 alleles. Variation in the 2 sequences was confirmed in genomic and cDNA from different individuals, indicating a low level of polymorphism. Although genomic Southern blot analysis suggested the presence of additional Ly49-related sequences in the human genome, these were not within 130 kb of the LY49L locus.