A shark antibody heavy chain encoded by a nonsomatically rearranged VDJ is preferentially expressed in early development and is convergent with mammalian IgG.

ABSTRACT: In most vertebrate embryos and neonates studied to date unique antigen receptors (antibodies and T cell receptors) are expressed that possess a limited immune repertoire. We have isolated a subclass of IgM, IgM(1gj), from the nurse shark Ginglymostoma cirratum that is preferentially expressed in neonates. The variable (V) region gene encoding the heavy (H) chain underwent V-D-J rearrangement in germ cells ("germline-joined"). Such H chain V genes were discovered over 10 years ago in sharks but until now were not shown to be expressed at appreciable levels; we find expression of H(1gj) in primary and secondary lymphoid tissues early in life, but in adults only in primary lymphoid tissue, which is identified in this work as the epigonal organ. H(1gj) chain associates covalently with light (L

SUBMITTER: Rumfelt LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC29333 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature