RESUMEN
In this report 118 mouse Vkappa genes are described which, together with the 22 Vkappa genes reported previously (T. Kirschbaum et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 1998. 28: 1458-1466) amount to 140 genes that had been cloned and sequenced in our laboratory. For 73 of them cDNAs are known, i. e. they have to be considered functional genes, although 10 genes of this group have 1-bp deviations from the canonical promoter, splice site or heptanucleotide recombination signal sequences. Twenty Vkappa genes have been defined as only potentially functional since they do not contain any defect, but no cDNAs have been found (yet) for them. Of the 140 Vkappa genes 47 are pseudogenes. There are indications that two to five Vkappa genes or pseudogenes exist in the kappa locus which we have not yet been able to clone. The 140 Vkappa genes and pseudogenes were assigned to 18 gene families, 4 of them being one-member families. This differs from previous enumerations of the families only by the combination of the Vkappa9 and Vkappa10 families and by the addition of the Vkappa dv gene as a new separate family. Sequence identity usually was 80% or above within the gene families and 55-80% between genes of different families. Many of the mouse Vkappa gene families show significant homologies to the human ones, indicating that in evolution Vkappa gene diversification predated the divergence of the primate and rodent clades.
Asunto(s)
Genes de Inmunoglobulinas , Región Variable de Inmunoglobulina/genética , Cadenas kappa de Inmunoglobulina/genética , Familia de Multigenes , Animales , Secuencia de Bases , Clonación Molecular , ADN Complementario/genética , Humanos , Ratones , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , SeudogenesRESUMEN
The immunoglobulin kappa genes of nonhuman primates were studied by using sequence information and hybridization probes derived from the human kappa gene regions. The following results were obtained: (1) V kappa gene probes of the three major human kappa subgroups hybridized to restriction nuclease digests of DNA from the chimpanzees Pan troglodytes (PTR) and Pan paniscus (PPA), the gorilla Gorilla gorilla (GGO), the orangutan Pongo pygmaeus (PPY), the macaque Macaca mulatta (MMU), the marmoset Callithrix geoffrei (CGE), and the bushbaby Galago demidovii (GDE), yielding patterns of decreasing similarity to the patterns of the human V kappa multigene family. (2) The C kappa gene segments of PTR, GGO, and PPY were 99.6, 97, and 93%, respectively, identical in sequence to the human C kappa gene. A V kappa gene in PTR, GGO, PPY, and MMU was 98, 96, 96, and 95%, respectively, identical to the most C kappa proximal V kappa gene, called B3. The other two J kappa-C kappa proximal V kappa genes in human, B1 and B2, hybridize to restriction fragments of sizes identical to that of DNA from humans and great apes. (3) The long-range restriction maps of the human (HSA), PTR, and GGO kappa loci as established by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) are quite homologous. According to the maps, however, and to hybridization studies with 11 duplication-differentiating probes, there is only one copy of the locus in PTR and GGO. This means that the duplication of large parts of the kappa locus as found in humans occurred after the branch-point of human and great ape evolution.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)