Recombination within the upstream gene of duplicated myelin basic protein genes of myelin deficient shimld mouse results in the production of antisense RNA.

The myelin deficient shimld mouse is an autosomal recessive mutant, characterized by hypomyelination in the central nervous system. The expression of the myelin basic protein (MBP) gene is inhibited transcriptionally. The MBP gene is duplicated tandemly in mld, and exons 3 to 7 of the upstream copy is inverted. In the present studies, we determined the approximate position of the 5' boundary and the nucleotide sequence surrounding the 3' boundary of the inversion and found a number of sequences homologous to the switching regions of mouse immunoglobulin heavy chain gene and J regions of human T cell receptor genes. Antisense RNA complementary to exons 3 and 7, which correspond to the inverted segment, was detected by RNase protection studies. This abnormal transcript was also shown to elongate through the inverted segment to reach the transcription initiation site of the downstream gene.