Multiple sites of crossing over within the Eb recombinational hotspot in the mouse

The Eb gene of the mouse major histocompatibility complex (MHC) contains a well-documented hotspot of recombination. Twelve cases of intra-Eb recombination derived from the b, d, k and s alleles of the Eb gene were sequenced to more precisely position the sites of meiotic recombination. This analysis was based on positioning recombination breakpoints between nucleotide polymorphisms found in the sequences of parental haplotypes. All twelve cases of recombination mapped within the second intron of the Eb gene. Six of these recombinants, involving the k and s haplotypes, mapped to two adjoining DNA segments of 394 and 955 base pairs (bp) in the 3' half of the intron. In an additional two cases derived by crossing over between the d and s alleles, breakpoints were positioned to adjoining segments of 28 and 433 bp, also in the 3' half of the intron. Finally, four b versus k recombinants were mapped to non-contiguous segments of DNA covering 2.9 kb and 1005 bp of the intron. An analysis of the map positions of crossover breakpoints defined in this study suggests that the second intron of the Eb gene contains a recombinational hotspot of approximately 800-1000 bp which contains at least two closely linked recombinationally active sites or segments. Further examination of the sequence data also suggests that the postulated location for the recombinational hotspot corresponds almost precisely to an 812 bp sequence that shows nucleotide sequence similarity to the MT family of middle repetitive DNA.