A novel coding sequence belonging to a new multicopy gene family mapping within the human MHC class I region

✍ Scribed by Corine Vernet; Marie-Thérèse Ribouchon; Giovanna Chimini; Anne-Marie Jouanolle; Issa Sidibé; Pierre Pontarotti

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 692 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0093-7711
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00216390

✦ Synopsis

The human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region is a genomic region spanning about 4000 kilobases (kb) including the class I, class II, and class III subregions. The class I subregion is larger than the two others but with fewer genes described to date. It includes a) classical human leucocyte antigen (HLA) class I genes (HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C) which are highly polymorphic and encode products presenting the endogenous antigenic peptides to the T-cell receptors, and b) non-classical class I genes (HLA-E, HLA-F, HLA-G) whose function is still unknown. In this study, we describe the first coding sequence which is not structurally related to the class I genes, although it is localized within the MHC class I region. This novel gene, P5-1, belongs to a multiple copy family, all members of which map within the MHC. Although the P5-1 sequence showed no similarity to sequences in different databanks, its transcription, which is restricted to lymphoid tissues, argues for an immunological function of its product.