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Allelic polymorphism of mouse Igh-J locus, which encodes immunoglobulin heavy chain joining (JH) segments

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Abstract

The mouse genome contains four functional J H genes, which encode immunoglobulin heavy chain joining segments. The J H gene cluster is located a few kilobases 5′ from the constant region genes (C genes) on chromosome 12. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-technique was used to amplify DNA stretches from mouse genome of approximately 1 340 nucleotides in length containing all four J H genes (Igh-J locus). PCR products were directly used as templates in Sanger's dideoxy-sequencing, and sequences were determined. Twelve inbred mouse strains belonging to ten different Igh-C haplotypes were studied. The strains were: BALB/c, C58/J, RIII, DBA/2, CE, RF, CBA, NZB/J, AKR, C57BL/10, SJL, and A/J. Five allelic forms of the Igh-J locus were found among these strains. The A/J mouse has an allele (e) which differs from the BALB/c allele (a) by 15 nucleotides. C57BL and SJL have the allele (b) with eight differences from BALB/c. The CBA allele (j) has two differences, and the CE allele (f) has a single nucleotide difference compared with the BALB/c sequence. Based on the J H , variable (V) and constant (C) region sequences we conclude that independent reshuffling of V H ,J H , and C H gene clusters occurred during the evolution of Mus musculus.

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  1. Deparment of Bacteriology and Immunology, University Helsinki, 00290, Helsinki, Finland

    Marja-Liisa Solin & Matti Kaartinen

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  1. Marja-Liisa Solin
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  2. Matti Kaartinen
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The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to the EMBL nucleotide sequence database and have been assigned the accession numbers X63146-X63175.

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Solin, ML., Kaartinen, M. Allelic polymorphism of mouse Igh-J locus, which encodes immunoglobulin heavy chain joining (JH) segments. Immunogenetics 36, 306–313 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00215659

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00215659

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