Genomic organization of mouse J kappa recombination signal binding protein (RBP-J kappa) gene

We have isolated a cDNA clone (RBP-2) for the protein (RBP-J kappa) which binds to immunoglobulin recombination signals with 23-base pair spacers (Matsunami, N., Hamaguchi, Y., Yamamoto, Y., Kuze, K., Kangawa, K., Matsuo, H., Kawaichi, M., and Honjo, T. (1989) Nature 342, 934-937). During further screening of a cDNA library from the same mouse pre-B cell line (38B9), we have isolated a second cDNA clone (RBP-2N) which differs from RBP-2 in its 5' sequence. RNase protection assays indicated that the RBP-2N type mRNA was produced in 10-20 times the quantity as RBP-2 mRNA. To elucidate the relationship between these two mRNAs, we analyzed the genomic organization of the RBP-J kappa gene. Southern hybridization of mouse genomic DNA detected at least 7 EcoRI fragments hybridizing to an RBP-2 cDNA probe, suggesting a complex structure for the RBP-J kappa gene. Cloning of each EcoRI fragment revealed one functional RBP-J kappa gene and three related genes. The functional gene was composed of 11 exons and spanned at least 50 kilobase pairs. The sequence of exon 1 and its 5'-flanking region contained a GC-rich promoter-like region but no apparent TATA box. The initiation site of transcription was heterogeneous, and the two types of mRNA are produced from the same exon by transcription initiation at different sites and by different usage of splice signals. Two of the three related genes were processed pseudogenes with scattered stop codons. The other was also a processed gene with a sequence exactly the same as that of RBP-2, except that this gene lacked the sequence corresponding to the first exon of the functional gene.