Nucleic Acids Research, 1983, Vol. 11, No. 19 6775-6785
© 1983
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
The structure of the mouse immunoglobulin in 
3 membrane gene segment
1Molecular Biology Institute, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA 4Dept. Microbiology, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Southwestern Medical School Dallas, TX 75235, USA 5Dept. Microbiology and Immunology, UCLA School of Medicine Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Received June 20, 1983. Revised September 6, 1983. Accepted September 6, 1983.
The genomic region containing the mouse immunoglobulin 
3 heavy chain membrane (M) exons has been located and sequenced.The exon structure is highly similar to that of the other mouse chains, with strong sequence conservation in the coding regions and the intron 5' to the M1 exon. The intron between M1 and M2 shows moderate sequence homology but very strong conservation of size. RNA blots suggest that 3 membrane exon usage is similar to that seen in other immunoglobulin membrane heavy chain mRMAs. The transmembrane region contains the invariant residues which have been noted in all other heavy chain sequences and which were previously proposed to be interactive in a two-chain model for insertion through the lymphocyte membrane. Conserved residues with similar spacing have been seen in class II histocompatibility antigens, which are also two-chain transmembrane molecules, but not in class I antigens, which span cell membranes with a single chain.
2Present address: Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA
3Present address: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QH, UK
6Present address: Alcon Laboratories, 6201 S. Freeway, Fort Worth, TX 76134, USA