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Novel κ light-chain gene rearrangements in mouse λ light chain-producing B lymphocytes

Abstract

The genes that encode the immunoglobulin proteins made by B lymphocytes are made up of segments that are separately encoded in the germ-line genome and brought together by recombination during B-cell ontogeny1. There are two types of immunoglobulin light chain, κ and λ, but only a single type is expressed in individual B cells. It is thought that κ gene recombination precedes λ gene recombination during B-cell ontogeny2,3. We describe here unusual recombinations that have occurred in two λ-producing B-cell lines and suggest that they are involved in the developmental switch from κ to λ gene expression in maturing B cells. These recombinations involve the JκCκ introns of VJ joined but nonfunctional κ genes and a sequence that in the germ line occurs downstream of the Cκ exon (called RS, for recombining sequence).

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Durdik, J., Moore, M. & Selsing, E. Novel κ light-chain gene rearrangements in mouse λ light chain-producing B lymphocytes. Nature 307, 749–752 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/307749a0

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