Abstract
Immunoglobulin may be secreted by a lymphocyte or bound to the cell membrane as an antigen receptor1. The most common classes of membrane immunoglobulin (mIg) are IgM and IgD, but some B lymphocytes, thought to be involved in immunological memory2,3, bear other classes such as mIgG and mIgA4. In mice, the μm heavy chain of mIgM bears a hydrophobic C-terminus whereas in the secreted (μs) chain it is hydrophilic. There are distinct μs and μm mRNAs with different 3′ termini, which are produced by alternative splices of transcripts of the active rearranged μ gene5–7. There also seem to be alternative C-termini and distinct mRNAs for δs and δm chains8–11. The murine B-lymphoma cell line 2PK-3 (ref. 12) produces both membrane and secreted IgG2a13. The γ2am polypeptide is larger and more acidic than the γ2as chain13,14, but nothing is known about its C-terminus or about the mRNA and gene regions which encode it. We report here the identification of a 3.9-kilobase (kb) γ2a RNA species in 2PK-3 which is spliced at the 3′ end in a different way to the 1.9-kb γ2as mRNA. We suggest that this very long RNA is the mRNA for membrane γ2a chains.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Walters, C. S. & Wigzell, H. J. exp. Med. 132, 1233–1279 (1970).
Mason, D. W. J. exp. Med. 145, 1122–1130 (1976).
Okamura, K., Julius, M. H., Tsu, T. & Herzenberg, L. A. Eur. J. Immun. 6, 467–472 (1976).
Abney, E. R., Cooper, M. D., Kearney, J. F., Lawton, A. R. & Parkhouse, R. M. E. J. Immun. 120, 2041–2049 (1978).
Rogers, J. et al. Cell 20, 303–312 (1980).
Early, P. W. et al. Cell 20, 313–319 (1980).
Alt, F. W. et al. Cell 20, 293–301 (1980).
Tucker, P. W., Liu, C.-P., Mushinski, J. F. & Blattner, F. R. Science 1353–1360 (1980).
Moore, K. W., Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 78, 1800–1804 (1981).
Maki, R. et al. Cell 24, 353–365 (1981).
Mushinski, J. F. et al. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77, 7405–7409 (1980).
Warner, N. L., Harris, A. W. & Gutman, G. A. in Membrane Receptors of Lymphocytes (eds Seligmann, M., Preud'homme, J. L. & Kourilsky, F. M.) 203–216 (Eisevier, New York 1975).
Oi, V. T., Bryan, V. M., Herzenberg, L. A. & Herzenberg, L. A. J. exp. Med. 151, 1260–1274 (1980).
Word, C. J. & Kuehl, W. M. Molec. Immun. 18, 311–322 (1981).
Alwine, J. C., Kemp, D. J. & Stark, G. R. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 5350–5354 (1977).
Sikorav, J. L., Auffray, C. & Rougeon, F. Nucleic Acids Res. 8, 3143–3155 (1980).
Berk, A. J. & Sharp, P. A. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 1274–1278 (1978).
Sharp, P. A. Cell 23, 643–646 (1981).
Tyler, B. M. & Adams, J. M. Nucleic Acids Res. 8, 5579–5598 (1980).
Adams, J. M., Webb, E. A., Gerondakis, S. D. & Cory, S. Nucleic Acids Res. 8, 6019–6032 (1980).
Ravetch, J. V., Kirsch, I. R. & Leder, P. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77, 6734–6738 (1980).
Kemp, D. J., Harris, A. W., Cory, S. & Adams, J. M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 77, 2876–2880 (1980).
Rigby, P. J. W., Dieckmann, M., Rhodes, C. & Berg, P. J. molec. Biol. 113, 237–251 (1977)
Adams, J. M. et al. Biochemistry 19, 2711–2719 (1980).
Gough, N. M., Kemp, D. J., Tyler, B. M., Adams, J. M. & Cory, S. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 77, 554–558 (1980).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tyler, B., Cowman, A., Adams, J. et al. Generation of long mRNA for membrane immunoglobulin γ2a chains by differential splicing. Nature 293, 406–408 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/293406a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/293406a0
This article is cited by
-
A common mechanism for the synthesis of membrane and secreted immunoglobulin α, γ and μ chains
Nature (1982)
-
Immunoglobulin heavy-chain expression and class switching in a murine leukaemia cell line
Nature (1982)
-
The production of membrane or secretory forms of immunoglobulins is regulated by C-gene-specific signals
Nature (1982)
-
Mouse spleen and IgD-secreting plasmacytomas contain multiple IgD δ chain RNAs
Nature (1982)
