HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tosi, S. L. Articles by Dubiski, S. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Tosi, S. L. Articles by Dubiski, S.

Distribution of Allotypic Specificities A1, A2, A14, and A15 Among Immunoglobulin G Molecules

Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, and the Departments of Pathological Chemistry and Medicine, University of Toronto and the Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Abstract

The distribution of specificities A1, A2 (Fd-associated allotypes of rabbit heavy chains), A14 and A15 (Fc-associated allotypes of rabbit chains) was studied using ¹²⁵I-labeled IgG from homozygous and heterozygous rabbits of known pedigree. The IgG of an A1, 14/A2, 15 rabbit whose pedigree showed that A1 was genetically associated with A14 had closely similar proportions of these two specificities (80%), whereas IgG of an A1, 15/A2, 14 rabbit with A2 in coupling with A14 had equal proportions of these two specificities (20%). A rabbit with suppressed phenotypic expression of the A1 allotype was also suppressed for the A14 to which it was coupled. The quantitative expression of the Fc allotype (A14 or A15) is influenced by the Fd allotype with which it is genetically associated. The binding experiments indicated that the genetic association between Fd and Fc allotypes was faithfully reproduced in at least 90% to 95% of chains and a search for "recombinant" molecules (A1 with A14 and A15 in an A1, 14/A2, 15 heterozygote) was negative within the limits of the method (5% to 10%). Although a preliminary report (1) suggested that such molecules did occur, these low figures seem to indicate that the formation of "recombinant" molecules which utilize the genetic information for the Fd region from one homologous chromosome and for the Fc region from the other cannot play a major role in generating the diversity of antibody heavy chains.

Footnotes

¹ On leave from Osservatorio di Genetica Animale, Via Pastrengo 28, Torino, Italy.

² Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

³ Departments of Pathological Chemistry and Medicine, University of Toronto and the Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Canada.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Kingzette, H. Spieker-Polet, P.-C. Yam, S.-K. Zhai, and K. L. Knight Trans-chromosomal recombination within the Ig heavy chain switch region in B lymphocytes PNAS, September 29, 1998; 95(20): 11840 - 11845. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]