Abstract
In fish, two types of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) genes, namely, IgM and IgD, have been cloned and characterized. Recently, a new IGH isotype specific to teleosts had been identified from zebra fish, rainbow trout, and fugu. In zebra fish, the domains of this new gene are present upstream of the μ region along the IGH locus. During this study, a novel IGH chimera (IgM-IgZ) has been discovered from common carp. The cloned cDNA encodes a typical leader peptide, a variable region, two constant regions, and a secretory tail. The first constant region is made up of the CH1 domain of carp IgM, while the second constant region shares a high similarity to the CH4 domain of the IgZ from zebrafish. Southern hybridization studies of the μ and ζ domains, conducted separately, revealed the presence of at least three copies of the respective genes, and μ and ζ domains might be present on the same loci, although far apart. Expression studies of the IGH genes suggest that there is an increase in chimeric immunoglobulin gene transcription when stimulated with lipopolysaccharide.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Altschul SF, Gish W, Miller W, Meyers EW, Lipman DJ (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol 215:403–410
Bengten E, Leanderson T, Pilstrom L (1991) Immunoglobulin heavy chain cDNA from the teleost Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.): nucleotide sequences of secretory and membrane form show an unusual splicing pattern. Eur J Immunol 21:3027–3033
Bengten E, Quiniou SM, Stuge TB, Katagiri T, Miller NW, Clem LW, Warr GW, Wilson M (2002) The IgH locus of the channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, contains multiple constant region gene sequences: different genes encode heavy chains of membrane and secreted IgD. J Immunol 169:2488–2497
Danilova N, Bussmann J, Jekosch K, Steiner LA (2005) The immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus in zebrafish: identification and expression of a previously unknown isotype, immunoglobulin Z. Nat Immunol 6:295–302
Hansen JD, Landis ED, Phillips RB (2005) Discovery of a unique Ig heavy-chain isotype (IgT) in rainbow trout: implications for a distinctive B cell developmental pathway in teleost fish. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102:6919–6924
Harding FA, Amemiya CT, Litman RT, Cohen N, Litman GW (1990) Two distinct immunoglobulin heavy chain isotypes in a primitive, cartilaginous fish, Raja erinacea. Nucleic Acids Res 18:6369–6376
Hirono I, Nam BH, Enomoto J, Uchino K, Aoki T (2003) Cloning and characterisation of a cDNA encoding Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus IgD. Fish Shellfish Immunol 15:63–70
Hordvik I, Voie AM, Glette J, Male R, Endresen C (1992) Cloning and sequence analysis of two isotypic IgM heavy chain genes from Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L. Eur J Immunol 22:2957–2962
Hordvik I, Thevarajan J, Samdal I, Bastani N, Krossoy B (1999) Molecular cloning and phylogenetic analysis of the Atlantic salmon immunoglobulin D gene. Scand J Immunol 50:202–210
Kumar S, Tamura K, Nei M (2004) MEGA3: integrated software for molecular evolutionary genetics analysis and sequence alignment. Brief Bioinform 5:150–163
Nakao M, Moritomo T, Tomana M, Fujiki K, Yano T (1998) Isolation of cDNA encoding the constant region of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain from common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). Fish Shellfish Immunol 8:425–434
Sakai M, Savan R (2004) Characterization of zebra fish immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) locus. Proceeding of JSPS-NRCT international symposium, Kasetsart University, Thailand (ISBN 974-537-624-8)
Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T (2001) Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual. Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbour, NY
Savan R, Sakai M (2002) Analysis of expressed sequence tags (EST) obtained from common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., head kidney cells after stimulation by two mitogens, lipopolysaccharide and concanavalin-A. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol 131:71–82
Stenvik J, Jorgensen TO (2000) Immunoglobulin D (IgD) of Atlantic cod has a unique structure. Immunogenetics 51:452–461
Warr GW (1995) The immunoglobulin genes of fish. Dev Comp Immunol 19:1–12
Wilson M, Bengten E, Miller NW, Clem LW, Du Pasquier L, Warr GW (1997) A novel chimeric Ig heavy chain from a teleost fish shares similarities to IgD. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94:4593–4597
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship for foreign researchers and the JSPS Grant in aid research fund awarded to R.S. The authors thank Ms. Asuka Komiya and Mr. Kentaro Iwatani for their technical help with Southern hybridization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Savan, R., Aman, A., Nakao, M. et al. Discovery of a novel immunoglobulin heavy chain gene chimera from common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). Immunogenetics 57, 458–463 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-005-0015-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-005-0015-z