Physical linkage of mouse lambda genes by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis suggests that the rearrangement process favors proximate target sequences.

Abstract

The first complete map of a mammalian immunoglobulin gene locus is presented. Mouse lambda genes were mapped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The gene order is V2-Vx-C2-C4-V1-C3-C1. The distance between V2 or Vx and the C2-C4 cluster is 74 or 55 kilobases (kb), respectively, whereas that between V1 and C3-C1 is only 19 kb; V2 and C3-C1 are at least 190 kb apart. Thus, the distances between the lambda subloci are inversely proportional to their frequencies of rearrangement. The related gene lambda 5 is not within the 500 kb of the lambda locus mapped here.