Given large sample sizes, whole genome screens are now able to identify even quite
modest contributions of common human genetic variation to disease. These approaches,
made possible by the development of high-throughput, dense SNP genotyping, find few
associations stronger than those for the human MHC, in multigenic autoimmune conditions.
They confirm earlier findings that the major variants affecting susceptibility and resistance to
autoimmunity relate to MHC class I and class II genes. It is generally assumed, although …