| First Author | Chou CL | Year | 1993 |
| Journal | Somat Cell Mol Genet | Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 | Pages | 131-9 |
| PubMed ID | 8511672 | Mgi Jnum | J:12597 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:60838 | Doi | 10.1007/BF01233529 |
| Citation | Chou CL, et al. (1993) An insertion-deletion event in murine immunoglobulin kappa gene resembles mutations at heavy-chain disease loci. Somat Cell Mol Genet 19(2):131-9 |
| abstractText | The analysis of spontaneous somatic mutants gives insights into the regulation of gene expression. Human heavy-chain disease (HCD) is a monoclonal lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by the presence of truncated immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chains without associated light chains. To better understand the molecular mechanisms leading to the loss of light-chain production, we have examined a murine cell line model of heavy-chain disease. R15, a spontaneous mutant of the IgA, kappa-producing myeloma cell line W3129, produces heavy chain but no light chain. The variant delta 15 derived from R15 resembles human HCD in that it secretes a shortened heavy chain with no associated light chain. Cloning and analysis of the R15 kappa light-chain gene revealed that a 358-nucleotide insertion of unknown origin replaced 22 bases of the wild-type leader-variable region (L-V) intron (IVS). Although this genomic change left the light-chain exons and known regulatory elements intact, it altered the mRNA processing pathway, yielding two alternative RNA products, neither of which encodes a functional protein. This mutant therefore provides new insights into how genomic changes can influence gene expression. |
