Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 12, 441-450, Copyright © 1995 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
RW Slade and WE Mayer
The major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) is a multigene family found in
vertebrates. Mhc genes code for heterodimeric cell-surface molecules
involved in presentation of peptides to T-lymphocytes. There are two
classes of Mhc, and in eutherian mammals four main families of class II
genes have been recognized; DR, DQ, DP, and DN/DO. Each class II family
contains genes that code for one or more alpha and beta chains. Do the
class II genes of marsupial mammals belong to any of these eutherian mammal
class II families? The results to date are conflicting. The expressed class
II beta-chain genes could not be satisfactorily assigned to any eutherian
class II gene family and were designated as new gene families, while,
conversely, a partial sequence of an expressed alpha-chain gene was clearly
very similar to the DNA gene of eutherian mammals. The aim of this study
was to conduct a more thorough analysis of the alpha-chain genes in a
marsupial by obtaining full- length sequences of all the expressed
alpha-chain genes in the red- necked wallaby, Macropus rufogriseus. Two
class II alpha-chain genes were isolated from a spleen-derived cDNA
library, and both have the potential to code for fully functional MHC
molecules. Phylogenetic analysis indicated they belonged to previously
identified eutherian class II families and are designated as Maru-DRA and
Maru-DNA. Northern blot data indicated processed transcript sizes of
approximately 1.6 kb for Maru-DRA and approximately 2.5 kb for Maru-DNA and
that the latter was expressed at a lower level than the former. The
phylogeny shows that the DR, DQ, DP, and DN/DO gene families diverged prior
to the divergence of the marsupial and eutherian mammal lineages.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The expressed class II alpha-chain genes of the marsupial major histocompatibility complex belong to eutherian mammal gene families
Max-Planck-Institut fur Biologie, Abteilung Immungenetik, Tubingen, Germany.
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