title: Analysis of a marsupial MHC region containing two recently duplicated class I loci.
abstract: A 37-kb cosmid containing two complete major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I alpha chain loci from the opossum Monodelphis domestica was isolated, fully sequenced, and characterized. This sequence represents the largest contiguous genomic sequence reported for the MHC region of a nonplacental mammal. Based on particular conserved amino acid residues, and limited expression analyses, the two MHC-I loci, designated ModoUB and ModoUC, appear to encode functional MHC-I molecules. The two coding regions are 98% identical at the nucleotide level; however, their promoter regions differ significantly. Two CpG islands present in the cosmid sequence correspond to the two coding regions. Twelve microsatellites and six retroelements were also present in the cosmid. The retroelements share highest sequence homology to the CORE-SINE family of retroelements. Due to high sequence identity, it is very likely that ModoUB and ModoUC loci are products of recent gene duplication that occurred less than 4 million years ago.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
authors.forename: Katarzyna B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Miska
authors.forename: April M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lundgren
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sasaki-McClees
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Osterman
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gale
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003360:Cosmids / Q000235:genetics*; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005805:Genes, MHC Class I; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008394:Marsupialia / Q000235:genetics*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009893:Opossums / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018626:Retroelements