[The rule of antibody structure. The primary structure of a monoclonal IgG1 immunoglobulin (myeloma protein Nie). III. The chymotryptic peptides of the H-chain, alignment of the tryptic peptides and discussion of the complete structure].

In this final paper the complete primary structure of the H-chain of immunoglobulin Nie (IgG1, Gm1+, 17+) is established by overlapping tryptic fragments with chymotryptic peptides. The preceding papers dealt with the purification of the protein, the characterization of the light and heavy chains, the purification and characterization of the cyanogen bromide cleavage products, the location of the disulfide bonds, the isolation of the tryptic peptides and their sequence determination. The gamma1-chain Nie comprises 448 amino acid residues. When the protein is compared with other H-chains, the switch from the variable to the constant part occurs at position 119/120. Based on the amino acid sequence of the variable part, protein Nie belongs to subgroup III of the H-chains. It was the first protein of this subgroup to be sequenced. In the meantime several other proteins are known which have been assigned to the same subgroup on the basis of linked amino acid exchanges in comparison to members of other subgroups. This confirms the evolutionary origin of antibody variability and hence the genetically fixed antibody specific. Furthermore protein Nie is the first completely determined chain with the genetic factors Gm1+, 17+. These factors are inherited codominantly and are localized on the constant part of the gamma1-chain. By comparison with protein Eu, which is Gml-, 4+ and therefore an allele of Nie, these serologically defined factors are correlated with Eu. Besides the amino acid exchanges caused by the Gm-factors we elucidated a series of differences to the constant part of the protein Eu. These differences include 6 amide postions and the sequence from residues 387 to 391. Using the structure of IgG1 Nie as an example some rules for the evolution of immunoglobulin sequences have been described. In particular the "elongation-rule" and the "Disulfide-rule" are discussed. While chain-elongation of the H-chains can simply be explained by repeated gene duplications of a basic unit containing ca 110 amino acids, the location of disulfide bonds is determined partly by gene duplication, which implies multiplication of evolutionary "old" cystein residues and partly by the relatively recent acquisition of "new" cystein in appropriate sites. Most evident is the origin of the "hindge-region" by partial gene duplication on the C-terminal residues of the first homology region.