State Key Laboratory of AgroBiotechnology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e39298. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039298. Epub 2012 Jun 22.
In science, the guinea pig is known as one of the gold standards for modeling human disease. It is especially important as a molecular and cellular biology model for studying the human immune system, as its immunological genes are more similar to human genes than are those of mice. The utility of the guinea pig as a model organism can be further enhanced by further characterization of the genes encoding components of the immune system. Here, we report the genomic organization of the guinea pig immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy and light chain genes. The guinea pig IgH locus is located in genomic scaffolds 54 and 75, and spans approximately 6,480 kb. 507 V(H) segments (94 potentially functional genes and 413 pseudogenes), 41 D(H) segments, six J(H) segments, four constant region genes (μ, γ, ε, and α), and one reverse δ remnant fragment were identified within the two scaffolds. Many V(H) pseudogenes were found within the guinea pig, and likely constituted a potential donor pool for gene conversion during evolution. The Igκ locus mapped to a 4,029 kb region of scaffold 37 and 24 is composed of 349 V(κ) (111 potentially functional genes and 238 pseudogenes), three J(κ) and one C(κ) genes. The Igλ locus spans 1,642 kb in scaffold 4 and consists of 142 V(λ) (58 potentially functional genes and 84 pseudogenes) and 11 J(λ) -C(λ) clusters. Phylogenetic analysis suggested the guinea pig's large germline V(H) gene segments appear to form limited gene families. Therefore, this species may generate antibody diversity via a gene conversion-like mechanism associated with its pseudogene reserves.
在科学领域，豚鼠是模拟人类疾病的黄金标准之一。作为研究人类免疫系统的分子和细胞生物学模型，豚鼠尤为重要，因为其免疫基因与人类基因更为相似，而不是与小鼠基因相似。通过进一步描述免疫球蛋白（Ig）重链和轻链基因编码成分，豚鼠作为模型生物的用途可以得到进一步增强。在这里，我们报告了豚鼠免疫球蛋白（Ig）重链和轻链基因的基因组组织。豚鼠 IgH 基因座位于基因组支架 54 和 75 中，跨度约 6480kb。在这两个支架内，鉴定了 507 个 V(H) 片段（94 个潜在功能基因和 413 个假基因）、41 个 D(H) 片段、6 个 J(H) 片段、4 个恒定区基因（μ、γ、ε 和α）和一个反向δ残片。在豚鼠中发现了许多 V(H) 假基因，它们可能构成了进化过程中基因转换的潜在供体库。Igκ 基因座定位于支架 37 和 24 的 4029kb 区域，由 349 个 V(κ)（111 个潜在功能基因和 238 个假基因）、3 个 J(κ) 和 1 个 C(κ) 基因组成。Igλ 基因座跨越支架 4 中的 1642kb，由 142 个 V(λ)（58 个潜在功能基因和 84 个假基因）和 11 个 J(λ)-C(λ) 簇组成。系统发育分析表明，豚鼠的大型种系 V(H) 基因片段似乎形成了有限的基因家族。因此，该物种可能通过与假基因储备相关的基因转换样机制产生抗体多样性。
