Mechanisms of divergence and convergence of the human immunoglobulin α1 and α2 constant region gene sequences

摘要: Abstract Nucleotide sequences of the human α1 and two allelic α2 immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region genes are presented. The contain three exons, each encoding a single protein domain. hinge is encoded at 5′ end second exon, rapid evolutionary changes in length correspond to duplications or deletions within hinge-coding region, probably facilitated by repeats DNA sequence. Alignment gene reveals an unusual coupled deletion-duplication 5′-flanking which can be explained terms slipped-strand mispairing model. Comparison nucleotide alleles indicates localized transfer genetic information from 3′ one alleles, conversion. At conversion apparently occurred, there 40 bp sequence type that form Z-DNA.