Abstract
The human Rh blood group locus consists of two structurally related genes (D and CcEe) in Rh-positive haplotypes but a single gene (CcEe) in Rh-negative haplotypes. The genome of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), while not expressing any of the human Rh D, C, c, E, or e specificities, carries a Rh-like locus strongly related to the human Rh locus. Southern blot analysis suggested the presence of only one Rh-like gene with an additional truncated fragment corresponding to the 5′ region. RNA preparations from M. mulatta bone marrow cells contained Rh-like species of 1.7 kb. Two allelic Rh-like transcripts were amplified by PCR and sequenced. The predicted translation product of the first transcript was a 417-amino-acid protein closely similar to the human Rh counterpart. The predicted product of the second transcript consisted of a 361-amino-acid polypeptide truncated in the NH2 terminal region and differing from the former by a few substitutions. The macaque Rh-like protein sequences differed from those of human D and Cc/Ee polypeptides by 22–25%, whereas the degree of identity between the human proteins was 91.5%. Implications of these results in the analysis of the evolutionary pathway of the Rh locus are discussed.
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Mouro, I., Le Van Kim, C., Cherif-Zahar, B. et al. Molecular characterization of the rh-like locus and gene transcripts from the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). J Mol Evol 38, 169–176 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166163
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166163