Recombinational hotspot specific to female meiosis in the mouse major histocompatibility complex

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Abstract
Thewm7 haplotype of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), derived from the Japanese wild mouseMus musculus molossinus, enhances recombination specific to female meiosis in theK/A β interval of the MHC. We have mapped crossover points of fifteen independent recombinants from genetic crosses of thewm7 and laboratory haplotypes. Most of them were confined to a short segment of approximately 1 kilobase (kb) of DNA between theA β3 andA β2 genes, indicating the presence of a female-specific recombinational hotspot. Its location overlaps with a sex-independent hotspot previously identified in theMus musculus castaneus CAS3 haplotype. We have cloned and sequenced DNA fragments surrounding the hotspot from thewm7 haplotype and the corresponding regions from the hotspot-negative B10.A and C57BL/10 strains. There is no significant difference between the sequences of these three strains, or between these and the published sequences of the CAS3 and C57BL/6 strains. However, a comparison of this Aβ3/Aβ2 hotspot with a previously characterized hotspot in theEβ gene revealed that they have a very similar molecular organization. Each hotspot consists of two elements, the consensus sequence of the mouse middle repetitive MT family and the tetrameric repeated sequences, which are separated by 1 kb of DNA.