Propagation and maintenance of the 119 human immunoglobulin vλ genes and pseudogenes during evolution

Kazuhiko Kawasaki, Shinsei Minoshima, Nobuyoshi Shimizu

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We previously determined a contiguous 1,025,415-nucleotide sequence of the entire human immunoglobulin λ gene locus, in which a total of 36 potentially functional Vλ genes and 33 pseudogenes were localized. We also identified many more incomplete Vλ genes to be characterized further. Some of these possessed only a slight sequence homology with the known Vλ genes, and others possessed a high homology but had severely truncated coding regions. Here, we made extensive characterization of 50 new Vλ pseudogenes, totaling 119 gene segments in the Vλ gene locus. Of these 119 Vλ genes, 118 were localized within the five Vλ gene-rich clusters that we previously defined. Two of these novel Vλ pseudogenes possessed the opposite transcriptional polarity to all the other Vλ genes. The present comprehensive analysis of 119 Vλ genes validated our previous classification of Vλ genes and provided a basis for a possible mechanism by which a large number of Vλ pseudogenes were propagated and maintained as a particular locus during evolution. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)120-134
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Experimental Zoology
Volume288
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 15 2000

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Animal Science and Zoology

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