Physical linkage of the constant region genes for immunoglobulins lambda I and lambda III.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
During differentiation from a stem cell to an antibody-secreting cell, the Ig genes within a B cell undergo a rearrangement that juxtaposes a variable region gene to a constant region gene. To analyze the genetic organization of an Ig gene family in nonrearranged, germ-line DNA, a recombinant DNA library was constructed from randomly cleaved mouse kidney DNA fragments. From this library, 3 overlapping recombinant clones containing the constant region gene for .lambda.I L chains (C.lambda.I). These clones spanned 24.9 kilobases of mouse DNA and contained no variable region sequences. Hydridization of these clones with .lambda.II c[complementary]DNA demonstrated the presence of an additional constant region gene and a joining region 3.2 kilobases 5'' of C.lambda.II. This gene was tenatively identified as C.lambda.III by the absence of an Ava I endonuclease site, which was present within C.lambda.II. The C.lambda.III amino acid sequence has recently been reported and is very closely related to the C.lambda.II amino acid sequence.