Cohen J B, Givol D
EMBO J. 1983;2(10):1795-800. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01660.x.
The 12 immunoglobulin VH pseudogenes, that have been characterized to date, differ from most pseudogenes of other multigene families in two aspects: (i) they carry only one (11 cases) or at the most two (1 case) deleterious mutations and (ii) they show no evidence of increased divergence from intact VH genes. We describe here the first immunoglobulin VH pseudogene that does not have these characteristics. This pseudogene accumulated numerous deleterious mutations and diverged considerably from other genes of the VH gene family to which it belongs. In possible contrast to the other VH pseudogenes, this pseudogene seems to be selectively neutral. We discuss the implications of the characterization of this diverged VH pseudogene in relation to our understanding of the genetic mechanisms that generate diversity among germline immunoglobulin VH genes.
迄今为止已被鉴定的12个免疫球蛋白VH假基因，在两个方面与其他多基因家族的大多数假基因不同：（i）它们仅携带一个（11例）或最多两个（1例）有害突变，以及（ii）没有证据表明它们与完整的VH基因的差异增加。我们在此描述了第一个不具备这些特征的免疫球蛋白VH假基因。该假基因积累了大量有害突变，并与其所属的VH基因家族的其他基因有很大差异。与其他VH假基因可能不同的是，该假基因似乎是选择性中性的。我们讨论了这个分化的VH假基因的特征对于我们理解种系免疫球蛋白VH基因多样性产生的遗传机制的意义。
