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Mapping of the class II region of the human major histocompatibility complex by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

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Abstract

The class II region of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) encodes a polymorphic set of cell surface glycoproteins involved in the regulation of the immune response1. Each glyco-protein is a heterodimer composed of a α-chain of relative molecular mass (Mr) 34,000 (34 K) and a β-chain of Mr = 28K. The products of the class II region have been characterized by the mixed lymphocyte reaction2, serology3, primed lymphocyte typing4 and DNA cloning5–9. DR, DQ and DP, three subregions containing both α- and β-chains, and two additional loci, DZα and DOβ, locate this gene cluster on the short arm of chromosome 6. The precise genomic organization of these loci have been difficult to determine. Here we describe the use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis10 together with restriction endonucleases having few genomic restriction sites and Southern blotting, to determine the order of the subregions and to derive a map for the human class II region. The order of these loci is similar to that of the homologous loci in the murine class II region11. Our study establishes the use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis in mapping large regions of the genome in higher eukaryotes.

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Author notes

  1. Eric O. Long: Laboratory of Immunogenetics, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Medical Microbiology and Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Deborah A. Hardy, John I. Bell, Eric O. Long, Tullia Lindsten & Hugh O. McDevitt

Authors
  1. Deborah A. Hardy
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  2. John I. Bell
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  3. Eric O. Long
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  4. Tullia Lindsten
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  5. Hugh O. McDevitt
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Hardy, D., Bell, J., Long, E. et al. Mapping of the class II region of the human major histocompatibility complex by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Nature 323, 453–455 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/323453a0

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