Sequence and length heterogeneity of alpha Fc gamma R transcripts in AKR mice

The murine low-affinity receptors for IgG, Fc gamma RIII and Fc gamma RII, are encoded by the alpha and the beta Fc gamma R genes, respectively. By contrast to the sequence and the molecular polymorphism of human Fc gamma RIII, no heterogeneity of the murine Fc gamma RIII has been reported and a single alpha Fc gamma R transcript was observed. We describe here a double heterogeneity of alpha Fc gamma R transcripts. First, by S1 mapping of alpha transcripts and by cloning of cDNA coding for Fc gamma RIII, we found a strain-related sequence heterogeneity: four amino acids in the coding region and two stretches of nucleotides in the 3' untranslated sequences differ between alpha transcripts of AKR and BALB/c mice. Second, in AKR mice, we found a cell-dependent length heterogeneity: a short 0.9 kb alpha transcript was present in peritoneal thioglycolate-elicited cells (PEC) from AKR mice. This transcript was present neither in mast cells and NK cells from AKR and BALB/c mice nor in PEC from BALB/c mice. A short cDNA, with a deletion of all the 3' untranslated sequences, has been cloned from AKR PEC, and corresponds to the short alpha transcript. All the differences found in the 3' untranslated sequences of AKR alpha transcripts are located within the fifth exon of the mouse alpha Fc gamma R gene.