Evolutionarily conserved organization and sequences of germline diversity and joining regions of the rabbit T-cell receptor beta 2 chain.

We previously reported that there are three different copies of T-cell receptor beta chain constant region (C beta) genes in some rabbits, two of which are present on an approximately 16-kb and one on an approximately 6-kb Eco RI fragment. We also reported that one of the C beta genes on the approximately 16-kb fragment was chimeric, with a 5' cluster of J beta 2 segments and a 3' untranslated region of beta 1 type. Here we report the complete genomic sequences of the D beta 2 and J beta 2 segments associated with the chimeric C beta gene. The rabbit D beta 2 gene segment has very strong similarity to both its human and mouse counterparts. The sequence similarity also extends rather far from the coding region in both 5' and 3' directions. The content and organization of rabbit J beta 2 gene segments is similar to those found in both human and mouse. The rabbit J beta 2 cluster has six functional segments and one pseudogene, as well as a remnant of another pseudogene between J beta 2.2 and J beta 2.3 equivalent to the one found in man in the same location. The J beta 2.5 gene segment of rabbit has lost the splice signal and is a pseudogene unlike its counterparts in man and mouse. Overall analysis of the rabbit D beta 2-J beta 2 region reveals a closer similarity to human than mouse. However, the general organization of the gene segments in the D beta 2-J beta 2 regions of all three species is remarkably conserved over long stretches of DNA sequence.