title: The mouse immunoglobulin kappa locus contains about 140 variable gene segments.
abstract: In continuation of our efforts to elucidate the immunoglobulin kappa locus of the mouse we analyzed 46 yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) containing V kappa, J kappa and C kappa genes. The YACs, which were derived from DNA of C57BL/6 and C3H mice, ranged from 0.3-1.9 Mb in size. On the basis of hybridization with probes specific for the V kappa gene families a group of 13 YACs was selected for detailed analysis. The V kappa genes of the YACs were then characterized by hybridization to the family-specific probes and by the sizes of the EcoRI fragments on which they were found. This way evidence was obtained for 140 different V kappa gene signals on the YACs. Of these 63 had been characterized before on clones from a cosmid library of total mouse DNA (I. Zocher et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 1995. 25: 3326-3331) and 22 others were found now on cosmid clones derived from the YACs. Six V kappa genes of the previous study which were not found on the YACs are probably located outside of the kappa locus. The YACs were arrayed in a unique order establishing a YACs panel which most likely contains the whole kappa locus. The cosmid contigs and solitary cosmid clones which contain the 63 plus 22 V kappa gene signals mentioned above comprise about 2.0 Mb. Assuming that the remaining 55 V kappa genes are spaced at the same average distance of 24 kb, one may extrapolate to a locus size of 3.3 Mb.
authors.affiliation: Adolf-Butenandt-Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Universität München, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kirschbaum
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jaenichen
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Zachau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015825:Chromosomes, Fungal / Q000276:immunology; D015723:Gene Library; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D007127:Immunoglobulin Constant Regions / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007127:Immunoglobulin Constant Regions; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains