1 research outputs found
Overusage of Mouse DH Gene Segment, DFL16.1, Is Strain-Dependent and Determined by cis-Acting Elements
The DJH structure is of particular importance for diversity in the immunoglobulin heavy
chain because it encodes most of CDR3. Here, we investigate mechanisms responsible for
generating the DJH structure. We found DFL16.1 was used at a high frequency in normal
and transformed pre-B cells (fetal liver > 50%, A-MuLV lines ≅ 25%). One DFL16.1JH1
structure was found repeatedly and was also present in DJH and VDJH databases,
suggesting this structure may be conserved in the primary repertoire. Genetic analysis
demonstrated that C57BL/6 mice use DFL16.1 in DJH structures more frequently than
BALB/c. Examination of individual alleles in (C57BL/6 BALB/c)F1 A-MuLV cell lines
revealed that the C57BL/6-derived allele used DFL16.1 twice as often as the BALB/c. This
result indicates that part of the mechanism ensuring overusage of DFL16.1 gene segments
is cis-acting