Diversity of germ-line immunoglobulin VH genes

David Givol*, Rina Zakut, Kim Effron, Gideon Rechavi, Daniela Ram, Justus B. Cohen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

The sequences of four embryonic mouse immunoglobulin VH genes have been compared. All genes end at codon 98 and code for a hydrophobic signal peptide of 19 residues interrupted at codon -4 by an intron of 83 base pairs. Substitutions occur in all gene segments but at a significantly higher frequency in the hypervariable regions. The data suggest an evolutionary basis for the diversity of immunoglobulin genes. Divergence resulted also in a termination codon in two of the genes, suggesting that part of the V gene repertoire cannot be expressed unless some correction mechanism is available.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)426-430
Number of pages5
JournalNature
Volume292
Issue number5822
DOIs
StatePublished - 1981
Externally publishedYes

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