Analysis of sequence transfers resembling gene conversion in a mouse antibody transgene.

The role of gene conversion in murine immunoglobulin gene diversification is unclear. An antibody gene construct designed to provide the homologous donor and acceptor sequences required for conversion mechanisms was produced and used to generate transgenic mice. When these transgenic mice were immunized, DNA sequence transfers between tandem transgene VDJ regions were detectable and resembled gene conversion events. There is a strong link between these conversion-like sequence transfers and transgene somatic hypermutation, suggesting that both processes might occur at the same stage of B cell differentiation.