Abstract
In contrast to rabbits of b4, b5, b6, and b9 allotypes whose serum immunoglobulins (Igs) are predominantly composed of kappa-type light chains, rabbits of the mutant Basilea strain have serum Igs that are largely of lambda type. We prepared several antisera that recognized a minor K2 (bas) light chain that is produced by Basilea rabbits. With these antisera we identified the K2 (bas) isotype in the serum of the original b 9/b 9 male rabbit whose offspring displayed the Basilea mutant phenotype. It was present in one half of his nonmutant offspring which inherited b9 from him and another b allotype from their mothers. Breeding was conducted both in Basel and at the NIH to develop and maintain colonies of mutant Basilea strain rabbits. The data obtained during colony development confirm that the trait of expression of the bas allotype maps to the same genetic region (b locus) that is known to control the allelic b allotypes b4, b5, b6 and b9. Homozygotes or heterozygotes of b4, b5 or b6 allotype (b b/b b) were mated with homozygous b bas/b bas rabbits to produce F1s, and then F2s as well as progeny of backcrosses to both homozygous parental types (b b/b b and b bas/b bas) were produced. The bas allotype segregates as an allele (or pseudoallele) at the b locus although there was a deficiency in recovery of homozygous bas offspring in both the F2 and backcross matings to b bas/b bas parental type in the NIH colony. This selective deficiency may reflect a deleterious effect on survival of homozygous bas progeny.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Benammar, A. and Cazenave, P. A.: A second rabbit kappa isotype. J. Exp. Med. 156: 585–595, 1982
Bernstein, K. E., Lamoyi, E., McCartney-Francis, N., and Mage, R. G.: Sequence of a cDNA encoding Basilea kappa light chains (K2 isotype) suggests a possible relationship of protein structure to limited expression. J. Exp. Med. 159: 635–640, 1984
Carbonara, A. O., Tosi, R. M., Mancini, G., Luzzati, A., and Ceppellini, R.: Characterization of Ig molecules carrying the Ab9 allotypic specificity in rabbits. Prog. Immunobiol. Standard. 4: 49–55, 1970
Chersi, A., Mage, R., Rejnek, J., and Reisfeld, R.: Isolation, chemical and immunologic characterization of κ- and λ-type light chains from IgG of normal rabbits with b9 allotype. J. Immunol. 104: 1205–1211, 1970
Dray, S., Young, G. O., and Gerald, L.: Immunochemical identification and genetics of rabbit γ-globulin allotypes. J. Immunol. 91: 403–415, 1963
Dubiski, S.: Immunochemistry and genetics of a “new” allotypic specificity Ae14 of rabbit γG immunoglobulins: recombination in somatic cells. J. Immunol. 103: 120–128, 1969
Dubiski, S. and Muller, P.: A “new” allotypic specificity (A9) of rabbit immunoglobulin. Nature 214: 696–697, 1967
Dubiski, S., Charpentier, L., and d'Agostaro, G.: Basilea kappa light chains of rabbit immunoglobulins. J. Immunogenet. 9: 223–231, 1982
Emorine, L. and Max, E. E.: Structural analysis of a rabbit immunoglobulin κ2J-C locus reveals multiple deletions. Nucleic Acids Res. 11: 8877–8890, 1983
Emorine, L., Dreher, K., Kindt, T. J., and Max, E. E.: Rabbit immunoglobulin κ genes: structures of a germline b4 allotype J-C locus and evidence for several b4-related sequences in the rabbit genome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80: 5709–5713, 1983a
Emorine, L., Kuehl, M., Weir, L., Leder, P., and Max, E. E.: A conserved sequence in the immunoglobulin J κ -C κ intron: possible enhancer element. Nature 304: 447–449, 1983b
Garcia, I. and Jaton, J.-C.: The immune response to type II and type VIII pneumococcal vaccines in BASILEA rabbits lacking κ light chains. Immunochemical and partial amino acid sequence studies of the light chains. Molex. Immunol. 16: 1063–1071, 1979
Garcia, I. and Jaton, J.-C.: The primary structure of the constant region of Basilea-rabbit immunoglobulin λ-chains. Biochem. J. 197: 177–183, 1981
Garcia, I., Brandt, D. C. H. Benammar, A., Cazenave, P.-A., and Jaton, J.-C.: BASILEA rabbits express two types of inununoglobulin light chains: λ and κ-like. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79: 4391–4394, 1982
Gathings, W. E., Mage, R. G., and Young-Cooper, G. O.: Kappa light chain expression by pre-B cells and B lymphocytes from normal and kappa deficient Basilea rabbits. J. Immunol., in press, 1984
Good, P. W., Notenboom, R., Dubiski, S., and Cinader, B.: BASILEA rabbit immunoglobulins: detection and characterization by specific alloantiserum. J. Immunol. 125: 1293–1297, 1980
Heidmann, O. and Rougeon, F.: Multiple sequences related to a constant-region kappa light chain gene in the rabbit genome. Cell 28: 507–513, 1982
Heidmann, O. and Rougeon, F.: Multiplicity of constant kappa light chain genes in the rabbit genome: a b4b4 homozygous rabbit contains a κ-bas gene. EMBO J. 2: 437–441, 1983a
Heidmann, O. and Rougeon, F.: Diversity in the rabbit immunoglobulin kappa chain variable regions is amplified by nucleotide deletions and insertions at the V-J junction. Cell 34: 767–777, 1983b
Hieter, P. A., Max, E. E., Seidman, J. G., Maizel, J. V., Jr., and Leder, P.: Cloned human and mouse kappa immunoglobulin constant and J region genes conserve homology in functional segments. Cell 22: 197–207, 1980
Hieter, P. A., Hollis, G. F., Korsmeyer, S. J., Waldmann, T. A., and Leder, P.: Clustered arrangement of immunoglobulin λ constant region genes in man. Nature 294: 536–540, 1981
Hieter, P. A., Maizel, J. V., Jr., and Leder, P.: Evolution of human immunoglobulin κ J region genes. J. Biol. Chem. 257: 1516–1522, 1982
Horng, W. J., Gilman-Sachs, A., and Dray, S.: In vivo immunoglobulin allotype suppression in the rabbit. In C. Bona and P. A. Cazenave (eds.): Regulation of Function of Lymphocytes by Antibodies, pp. 139–155, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1980
Jaton, J.-C. and Kelus, A. S.: Peptide mapping of the λ-like light chains of the BASILEA rabbits. Eur. J. Immunol. 7: 118–120, 1977
Kabat, E. A., Wu, T. T., Bilofsky, H., Reid-Miller, M., and Perry, H.: Sequences of proteins of immunological interest: tabulation and analysis of amino acid and nucleic acid sequences of precursors, V-regions, C-regions, J-chain, β 2 microglobulins, major histocompatibility antigens, Thy-1, complement, C-reactive protein, thymopoietin, post-gamma globulin, and α 2-macroglobulin. US DHHS, PHS, NIH, 1983
Kelus, A. S. and Weiss, S.: Variant strain of rabbits lacking immunoglobulin κ polypeptide chain. Nature 265: 156–158, 1977
Kindt, T. J.: Rabbit immunoglobulin allotypes: structure, immunology, and genetics. Adv. Immunol. 21: 35–86, 1975
Kindt, T. J. and Yarmush, M.: Expression of latent immunoglobulin allotypes and alien histocompatibility antigens: relevance to models of eukaryotic gene regulation. CRC Crit. Rev. Immunol. 2: 297–348, 1981
Mage, R. G.: Allotype suppression in rabbits: effects of anti-allotype antisera upon expression of immunoglobulin genes. Transplant. Rev. 27: 84–99, 1975
Mage, R.: The phenotypic expression of rabbit immunoglobulins: a model of complex regulated gene expression and cellular differentiation. In F. P. Inman and W. J. Mandy (eds.): Contemporary Topics in Molecular Immunology, pp. 89–112, Vol. 8, Plenum Press, New York, 1981
Mage, R. G.: Rabbit immunoglobulin allotypes. In D. M. Weir, L. A., Herzenberg, C. C. Balckwell, and L.A. Herzenberg (eds.): Handbook of Experimental Immunology, 4th edition, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Edinburgh, in press, 1984
Mage, R., Lieberman, R., Potter, M., and Terry, W. D.: Immunoglobulin allotypes. In M. Sela (ed.): The Antigens, Vol. 1, pp. 299–376, Academic Press, New York, 1973
McCartney-Francis, N., Skurla, R. M., Jr., Mage, R. G., and Bernstein, K. E.: Kappa chain allotypes and isotypes in the rabbit: cDNA sequences of clones encoding b9 suggest an evolutionary pathway and possible role of the interdomain disulfide bond in quantitative allotype expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. in press, 1984
Pavirani, A., McCartney-Francis, N., Jacobsen, F., Mage, R. G., Reddy, E. P., and Fitzmaurice, L. C.: Analyses of the splenic mRNAs expressed by rabbits of different immunoglobulin κ light chain allotypes: conserved sequences in the 3′ untranslated region and allotype-specific probes. J. Immunol. 131: 1000–1006, 1983
Rejnek, J., Appella, E., Mage, R. G., and Reisfeld, R. A.: Subtypes of rabbit κ light polypeptide chains associated with the b locus. Biochemistry 8: 2712–2718, 1969
Roux, K. H.: Rabbit latent allotypes: current status and future directions. Surv. Immunol. Res. 2: 342–350, 1983
Scott, C. L. and Potter, M.: Diversity of immunoglobulin structural gene loci: the special case of the mouse lambda locus. Surv. Immunol. Res. 2: 43–51, 1983
Weiss, S.: Origin and Immunochemical Characteristics of the Variant Rabbit Strain BASILEA, doctoral dissertation, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 1978
Weiss, S., Garcia, I., Jaton, J.-C., and Kelus, A. S.: Allotypes in Basilea rabbits. Eur. J. Immunol. 12: 170–173, 1982
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The Basel Institute for Immunology was founded and is supported by F. Hoffmann La-Roche and Co., Ltd., Basel, Switzerland.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mage, R.G., Young-Cooper, G.O., Alexander, C.B. et al. Genetics and expression of kappa-type light chains in Basilea rabbits. Immunogenetics 19, 425–434 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00364645
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00364645