title: Immunoglobulin VH genes of the goldfish, Carassius auratus: a re-examination.
abstract: Five VH-related genomic sequences from the goldfish, Carassius auratus, have been characterized. One of these sequences appeared to be a functional gene, and four to be pseudogenes. The main conclusions drawn from this study were that: (1) With minor exceptions, goldfish VH genes conform to the typical pattern of vertebrate VH genes in terms of their structure (they encode an intron-split hydrophobic leader, 3 framework and 2 complementarity-determining regions, and possess a typical 3' recombination signal sequence for VH to D joining) and regulatory sequences (possession of a typical upstream octameric promoter). (2) The sequences indicate that goldfish possess multiple families of VH sequences (at least three). Two of these families contain approximately 6 and 10 members, as judged from Southern blot hybridization experiments. (3) Goldfish VH gene families are distributed throughout the members of the species in the manner typical of that of VH families in other vertebrate species. Thus, this observation corrects the previous conclusion (Wilson et al., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 1566-1570, 1988) that VH genes are discontinuously distributed in the goldfish population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Warr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D015698:Genomic Library; D006054:Goldfish / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011544:Pseudogenes; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region