title: Subgroup IV of human immunoglobulin K light chains is encoded by a single germline gene.
abstract: The series of studies on the human K light chain genes of the various subgroups is concluded by this report on the isolation and nucleotide sequence determination of a functional VKIV gene (abbreviations ref. 1) and its germline counterpart. The rearranged gene which stems from a lymphoid cell line and the germline gene differ in four nucleotides which can be attributed to somatic mutations; three of the mutations are clustered in CDR3. The germline gene regions of two unrelated individuals were identical over a stretch of 1267 bp. By hybridization experiments it is shown that the human K locus contains only one VKIV gene. In 16 lymphoid cell lines studied here, the VKIV gene is frequently deleted or aberrantly rearranged which may be a consequence of peculiarities of its function and/or its structural organization.
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma; D002460:Cell Line; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D005796:Genes; D006801:Humans; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization
chemical_list: D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes