Open AccessEvidence that polymorphism in the murine major histocompatibility complex may be generated by the assortment of subgene sequences.
Author(s) -
C G Miyada,
C Klofelt,
Antonio A. Reyes,
Elizabeth McLaughlinTaylor,
Wallace Rb
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.82.9.2890
Subject(s) - genetics , biology , gene , haplotype , major histocompatibility complex , mutant , allele , base pair , gene conversion , microbiology and biotechnology , restriction fragment length polymorphism , mutation , genomic dna , polymerase chain reaction
The high degree of polymorphism found among the class I genes of the murine major histocompatibility complex (H-2) has led to the postulation that specific genetic mechanisms are responsible for their diversity. These same genetic mechanisms are probably responsible for the high spontaneous mutation frequency seen in H-2 alleles. The bml mutation of the H-2Kb gene has been shown to be 7 base pair changes over a 13 base pair region that result in three amino acid substitutions in the C1 domain of the protein product. The clustering of base-pair changes has suggested that the bm1 mutation resulted from a recombinational event analogous to gene conversion between the H-2Kb gene and a "donor" gene sequence. A 23-base oligonucleotide complementary to the bm1 mutant sequences was synthesized and used to probe genomic DNA restriction digests of the parental H-2b haplotype as well as other H-2 haplotypes. Our results indicate that a potential donor gene sequence is present in the genomes of all of the five mouse strains studied. Of eight tissues that were tested by blot-hybridization analysis, the potential donor gene sequences are transcribed only in the liver. Models for the generation of polymorphism among the H-2 class I genes via subgene rearrangements are proposed.