Immunoglobulin kappa locus, also known as IGK@, is a region on the p arm of human
chromosome 2
Chromosome 2 is one of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 2 is the second-largest human chromosome, spanning more than 242 million base pairs and representing almost ...
, region 11.2 (2p11.2), that contains
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
s for the kappa (κ)
light chains of
antibodies (or immunoglobulins).
In humans the κ chain is coded for by
V (variable),
J (joining) and
C (constant) genes in this region.
[Male, D., Brostoff, J., Roth, D.B., & Roitt, I. 2006. Immunology. 7th ed., Canada: Elsevier Limited] These genes undergo
V(D)J recombination
V(D)J recombination is the mechanism of somatic recombination that occurs only in developing lymphocytes during the early stages of T and B cell maturation. It results in the highly diverse repertoire of antibodies/immunoglobulins and T cell re ...
to generate a diverse repertoire of immunoglobulins.
Genes
The immunoglobulin kappa locus contains the following genes:
*
IGKC: immunoglobulin kappa constant
* IGKJ@: immunoglobulin kappa joining group
** IGKJ1, IGKJ2, IGKJ3, IGKJ4, IGKJ5
* IGKV@: immunoglobulin kappa variable group
** IGKV1-5, IGKV1-6, IGKV1-8, IGKV1-9, IGKV1-12, IGKV1-16, IGKV1-17, IGKV1-27, IGKV1-33
** IGKV1D-8, IGKV1D-12, IGKV1D-13, IGKV1D-16, IGKV1D-17, IGKV1D-22, IGKV1D-27, IGKV1D-32, IGKV1D-33, IGKV1D-39, IGKV1D-43
** IGKV2-24, IGKV2-28, IGKV2-30, IGKV2-40
** IGKV2D-26, IGKV2D-28, IGKV2D-29, IGKV2D-30, IGKV2D-40
** IGKV3-11, IGKV3-15, IGKV3-20
** IGKV3D-7, IGKV3D-11, IGKV3D-20
** IGKV4-1
** IGKV5-2
* and a number of non-functional and
pseudogene
Pseudogenes are nonfunctional segments of DNA that resemble functional genes. Most arise as superfluous copies of functional genes, either directly by DNA duplication or indirectly by reverse transcription of an mRNA transcript. Pseudogenes are ...
s
References
Further reading
Antibodies
Proteins
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