Structural analysis of substitution patterns in alleles of human immunoglobulin VH genes

The diversity in repertoires of antibodies (Abs) needed in response to the antigen challenge is produced by evolutionary and somatic processes. The mechanisms operating at a somatic level have been studied in great detail. In contrast, neither the mechanisms nor the strategies of diversification at an evolutionary level have yet been understood in similar detail. Particularly, the substitution patterns in alleles of immunoglobulin genes (Igs) have not been systematically studied. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of studies which link the analysis at a genetic level of the diversification of repertoires with the structural consequences at the protein level of the changes in DNA information. For the purpose of systematically characterizing the strategies of evolutionary diversification through sequence variation at alleles, in this work, we built a database for all the alleles of the IGHV locus in humans reported until now. Based on these data, we performed diverse analyses of substitution patterns and linked these results with studies at the protein level. We found that the sequence diversification in different alleles does not operate with equal intensity for all V genes. Our studies, both of the number of substitutions and of the type of amino acid change per sub-segment of the V-REGION evidenced differences in the selective pressure to which these regions are exposed. The implications of these results for understanding the evolutionary diversification strategies, as well as for the somatic generation of antibody repertoires are discussed.