Abstract
The problem of the evolution and inheritance of gene loci polymorphic for alleles with extensively differing sequences has been raised by the finding that the rat immunoglobulin κ-chain allotypes, RI-1a and RI-1b, which segregate as co-dominant alleles1–5, differ at 11 out of 107 amino acid positions6. It has been proposed that such ‘complex allotypes’ may represent the products of duplicated genes, analogous to immunoglobulin isotypes, which are subject to allelic regulation (see ref. 7 for a review). The present study was designed to determine the number and identity of the genes for κ-chain allotypes in the genome of inbred laboratory rats; if these allotypes represent duplicated genes it should be possible to identify the RI-1a structural gene in an inbred strain which only expresses the RI-1b allotype, or vice versa. Thus a gene corresponding to the RI-1b constant region of the κ light chain (Cκ) was cloned from LOUVAIN (LOU) rat liver DNA, and then used as a hybridization probe to analyse liver DNA from LEW (RI-1b) and DA (RI-1a) strains of rat8. The results reported here indicate that the genome of each inbred strain contains a Cκ gene of only the appropriate RI-1 type. Therefore the complex RI-1 allotypes in the rat cannot be explained by duplicated genes but by an unusual evolutionary history.
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Sheppard, H., Gutman, G. Complex allotypes of rat κ chains are encoded by structural alleles. Nature 293, 669–671 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/293669a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/293669a0
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