Construction of recombinant plasmids containing Xenopus immunoglobulin heavy chain DNA sequences

A recombinant cDNA plasmid containing Xenopus immunoglobulin heavy chain sequence has been constructed from Xenopus spleen poly(A)-containing RNA. The plasmid was identified by colony hybridization and a hybridization-translation assay and its identity was confirmed by DNA sequence analysis. The portion of the heavy chain sequence contained in the plasmid is 35% homologous to mammalian mu and gamma sequences. The mRNA corresponding to this plasmid is 2.5 kilobases, in close agreement with the size of mouse mu mRNA. RNA sequences complementary to the cloned sequence appear in embryos about 24 hr after fertilization, which corresponds to 24 hr before the first detectable immunoglobulin.