Exonuclease activity and P nucleotide addition in the generation of the expressed immunoglobulin repertoire.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Immunoglobulin rearrangement involves random and imprecise processes that act to both create and constrain diversity. Two such processes are the loss of nucleotides through the action of unknown exonuclease(s) and the addition of P nucleotides. The study of such processes has been compromised by difficulties in reliably aligning immunoglobulin genes and in the partitioning of nucleotides between segment ends, and between N and P nucleotides.

Results

A dataset of 294 human IgM sequences was created and partitioned with the aid of a probabilistic model. Non-random removal of nucleotides is seen between the three IGH gene types with the IGHV gene averaging removals of 1.2 nucleotides compared to 4.7 for the other gene ends (p < 0.001). Individual IGHV, IGHD and IGHJ

SUBMITTER: Jackson KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC517710 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature