title: Systematic characterization and comparative analysis of the rabbit immunoglobulin repertoire.
abstract: Rabbits have been used extensively as a model system for the elucidation of the mechanism of immunoglobulin diversification and for the production of antibodies. We employed Next Generation Sequencing to analyze Ig germline V and J gene usage, CDR3 length and amino acid composition, and gene conversion frequencies within the functional (transcribed) IgG repertoire of the New Zealand white rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Several previously unannotated rabbit heavy chain variable (VH) and light chain variable (VL) germline elements were deduced bioinformatically using multidimensional scaling and k-means clustering methods. We estimated the gene conversion frequency in the rabbit at 23% of IgG sequences with a mean gene conversion tract length of 59±36 bp. Sequencing and gene conversion analysis of the chicken, human, and mouse repertoires revealed that gene conversion occurs much more extensively in the chicken (frequency 70%, tract length 79±57 bp), was observed to a small, yet statistically significant extent in humans, but was virtually absent in mice.
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors: Jason J
authors: JJ
authors: Lavinder
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors: Kam Hon
authors: KH
authors: Hoi
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors: Sai T
authors: ST
authors: Reddy
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors: Yariv
authors: Y
authors: Wine
authors: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America; Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Georgiou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D005785:Gene Conversion; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011817:Rabbits / Q000276:immunology*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D007074:Immunoglobulin G