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Intergenic and interallelic exclusion inParamecium primaurelia: Immunological comparisons between allelic and non-allelic surface antigens

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Abstract

InParamecium, the expression of surface antigens is regulated in such a way that only one is generally present at the cell surface under given environmental conditions. Previous analyses have indicated that the surface antigen molecules play a key role in the control of their own expression. In order to characterize the structural particularities displayed by both allelic and non-allelic surface antigen molecules, immunological; comparisons were performed in vivo and in immunodiffusion on nine G and six D allelic surface antigens inParamecium primaurelia.

Our results show: (1) it is possible to distinguish two regions in the surface antigen molecule; one accessible to antibodies in vivo, carrying specific immobilization determinants, the other not accessible to antibodies in vivo, carrying common determinants shared by all the antigens of the same allelic series. Antigens coded by different loci differ in both regions. (2) The specificity of immobilization determinants is not borne by a hypothetical carbohydrate component of the molecule but by the polypeptide chain itself. (3) In heterozygotes displaying allelic exclusion the parental surface antigen phenotypically excluded in vivo at the cell surface is not present in the cytoplasm. These data permit some interpretations concerning the mechanisms of intergenic and interallelic exclusion, on the basis of the structural differences between the different surface antigens.

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  1. Centre de Génétique Moléculaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Yvonne Capdeville

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  1. Yvonne Capdeville
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I thank Doctors M. Weiss and L. Sperling very much for improvements to the English.

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Capdeville, Y. Intergenic and interallelic exclusion inParamecium primaurelia: Immunological comparisons between allelic and non-allelic surface antigens. Immunogenetics 9, 77–95 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01570395

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01570395

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