期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1981
卷号：78
期号：1
页码：247-251
DOI：10.1073/pnas.78.1.247
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：The organization and expression of immunoglobulin genes were studied in a series of six hybridomas derived from the fusion of a nonproducing myeloma cell with cells from mouse fetal liver. These hybridomas, which exhibit several phenotypic characteristics of immature B lymphocytes, all have productively rearranged mu heavy chain genes and produce both the membrane and secreted forms of mu mRNA in a ratio of about 1:10. Significantly, none of the hybridomas has an unrearranged (germ line) allelic mu gene. Examination of the kappa light chain genes revealed that all six of the hybridomas contain unrearranged kappa loci and produce 8.4-kilobase transcripts containing kappa constant region sequences. None of the five hybridomas that exhibit a mu-only phenotype contains a rearranged kappa gene other than that derived from the myeloma parent. One hybridoma, which actively secretes kappa immunoglobulin, contains a rearranged kappa gene of fetal liver origin and synthesizes a distinctive kappa mRNA precursor in addition to the 8.4-kilobase transcript. These results demonstrate that rearrangement of heavy chain immunoglobulin genes normally occurs prior to that of light chain genes and further indicate that the transcriptional competence of the kappa constant region locus is established prior to the time of its rearrangement.
