Nucleic Acids Research, 1990, Vol. 18, No. 12 3475-3478
© 1990
GENOME STRUCTURE AND MAPPING |
A human immunoglobulin kappa orphon without sequence defects may be the product of a pericentric inversion
Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Physikalische Biochemie und Zellbiologie der Universität München FRG 1Abt. Klinische Genetik, Universität Ulm FRG
*To whom correspondence should be addressed
Received April 19, 1990. Accepted May 18, 1990.
The VK gene segments that have been transposed from the kappa locus on the short arm of chromosome 2 at 2p11 –12 to other chromosomal sites are called orphons. The 18 VK orphons sequenced up to now carry defects and are to be considered pseudogenes. We now describe the VKI gene segment V108 whose sequence is without any defects and which was localized to the long arm of chromosome 2 at 2q12 –14 by in situ hybridization. The V108 region may have been transposed from the short to the long arm of chromosome 2 by a pericentric inversion. Possible reasons for the conservation of its sequence are discussed. In spite of its bona fide sequence V108 is considered to be an unlikely candidate for a VK–JK rearrangement and subsequent functional expression.
+Present address: Cancer Research Laboratory and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA