Genetics of mouse antibodies. II. Recombination between VH genes and allotype.

The BAB/14 (BALB/c. C57BL/Ka-Ig-1b/HZ) congenic mouse strain was found to respond to (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl (NP)-chicken globulin immunization with nonheteroclitic anti-NP antibodies as does the BALB/c inbred partner strain. This is in contrast to the heteroclitic anti-NP response of the C57BL/Ka allotype donor strain and indicates that the allotype linked VH-NP gene was inherited with the VH-DEX gene from BALB/C rather than with the allotype genes from C57BL/Ka. This verifies the interpretation of BAB/14 as an immunoglobulin gene recombinant. Two recombinants between VH-DEX and Ig-1 allogype genes have been found among 554 chromosomes tested yielding a recombination frequency of 0.4%. Analysis of the BAB/14 recombinant showed that this crossover occurred between VH genes implying that VH genes and CH genes are not organized in separate clusters separated by a larger spacer region but are contiguous. Analysis of the recombination frequencies indicates that the total number of VH genes must be at least 50.