There is a high level of allelic diversity at HLA DRB1, it is second only to HLA-B locus in number of allelic variants. These two loci are highest sequence variation rate within human genome. This means HLA-DRB1 is rapidly evolving, much more rapidly than almost all other protein encoding loci. Much of the variation at HLA DRB1 occurs at peptide contact positions in the binding groove, as a result many of the alleles alter the way the DR binds peptide ligands and changes the repertoire each receptor can bind.