We report the nucleotide sequence of a gene encoding the constant region of a human immnnoglobulin γ1 heavy chain (Cγ1). A comparison of this sequence with those of the Cγ2 and Cγ4 genes reveals that these three human Cγ genes share considerable homology in both coding and noncoding regions. The nucleotide sequence differences indicate that these genes diverged from one another approximately 6–8 million years ago. An examination of hinge exons shows that these coding regions have evolved more rapidly than any other areas of the Cγ genes in terms of both base substitution and deletion–insertion events. Coding sequence diversity also is observed in areas of CH domains which border the hinge
