The human VK locus. Characterization of a duplicated region encoding 28 different immunoglobulin genes

Two large regions of the human multigene family coding for the variable parts of the immunoglobulin light chains of the K type (VK) have been characterized on cosmid clones. The two germline regions, called Aa and Ab, span together 250,000 base-pairs and comprise 28 different VK gene segments, nine of which have been sequenced. There is a preponderance of VKII genes but genes belonging to subgroups I and III, and genes that cannot be easily assigned to one of the known subgroups, are interspersed within the VKII gene clusters. A number of pseudogenes have been identified. Within the Aa and Ab regions, all gene segments are organized in the same transcriptional orientation. The regions Aa and Ab, whose restriction maps are highly homologous, were shown not to be allelic structures; they must have arisen by a duplication event. Taken together with previous results, one can conclude that the major part of the VK locus exists in duplicated form. One individual has been found who has only one copy of some of the duplicated regions. By chromosomal walking, the A regions could be linked to the O regions, an analysis of which has been reported. The A regions contribute about one-third of the VK genes so far identified.