ABSTRACT
Contemporary immunogenetics uses a notation that does not allow for the complexity found in biological systems. All attempts at a more general approach to interpreting immunogenetic data have been shown, in one respect, to be mathematically equivalent. The new, more general symbolism admits more interpretations of data than can be handled—even with a computer. The intractable computational questions that have been asked historically are replaced by new questions that are more meaningful biologically and more tractable computationally.
As an application, data on HLA is interpreted in terms of the new symbolism. The results suggest a genetic model that differs from the currently accepted model. The new model is shown to be more economical in its interpretation of statistical and family (recombination) data.
