 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.This means that most of the changes are functional in nature, and therefore are under selection.In the HLA region, genes are under heterozygous or balancing selection, although certain alleles appear to be under positive or negative selection, either in the past or present

HLA generally evolve through a process of gene conversion, which is a form of short distance or 'abortive' genetic recombination.