These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed


  • Title: DNA sequences mediating class switching in alpha-immunoglobulins.
    Author: Davis MM, Kim SK, Hood LE.
    Journal: Science; 1980 Sep 19; 209(4463):1360-5. PubMed ID: 6774415.
    Abstract:
    Immunoglobulin class switching involves specific DNA rearrangements of the gene segments coding for heavy chain constant regions (CH) during B lymphocyte differentiation. In two different cases of C mu to C alpha switching examined here (T15 and M603) and one taken from the literature (MC101), three different sites on the 5' side of C mu and three different sites on the 5' side of C alpha are joined together in the process of CH switching. The sequences surrounding the three germ-line C alpha sites of recombination are highly conserved blocks of 30 nucleotides that may serve as recognition sequences for CH switching to the C alpha gene. This putative recognition sequence is repeated 17 times in approximately 1400 nucleotides of the germ-line Calpha 5' flanking sequence. The lack of homology between this C alpha sequence and sequences reported for the C gamma 1 and C gamma 2b switch sites suggests that heavy chain switching is mediated by class-specific recognition sequences and, presumably, class-specific regulatory mechanisms. In addition, it appears that in one example (MC101) CH switching progressed from C mu to C alpha to C gamma 1. This switching pathway may present difficulties for the simple deletional model of CH switching.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]