Unique sequences are interspersed among tandemly repeated elements in the murine gamma 1 switch segment

Early in its differentiative pathway, a given B lymphocyte expresses immunoglobulin of the mu heavy chain class (IgM). Subsequent differentiative processes may involve rearrangement within the immunoglobulin heavy chain chromosomal locus to enable cells of the same lineage to synthesize immunoglobulins of other heavy chain classes (e. g. IgG, IgE or IgA), but with specificity for the same antigen as the original IgM molecule. Switch recombination, the molecular event which facilitates this chromosomal rearrangement, has been shown to occur between segments of DNA consisting of tandemly repeated unit sequences. These DNA segments have been functionally defined as switch regions. We have cloned the gamma 1 switch region from the BALB/c germline, and have demonstrated that significantly divergent sequence elements are interspersed among the tandemly repeated units characteristic of this switch region. We show that these unique elements exist in at least three copies within the switch segment, and discuss the implications of this novel and previously unreported primary structure.