Structural variation of the mouse natural killer gene complex

• Published in: Genes and immunity Vol. 11; no. 8; pp. 637 - 648
• Main Authors: Higuchi, D A, Cahan, P, Gao, J, Ferris, S T, Poursine-Laurent, J, Graubert, T A, Yokoyama, W M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.12.2010; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/1647/2217/2136; 631/208/726/649/2157; 631/250/1619/382; Alleles; Animals; Antigens, CD - genetics; Artificial chromosomes; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Chromosome 6; Chromosome Mapping; Comparative Genomic Hybridization; Cytokines; Gene clusters; Gene Expression; Gene families; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Haplotypes; Human Genetics; Hybridization; Immunity, Cellular - genetics; Immunology; Inbreeding; Killer cells; Killer Cells, Natural - immunology; Ligands; Ly-49 antigen; Medicine; Mice; Mice, 129 Strain; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred NOD; Monoclonal antibodies; Multigene Family - genetics; Natural killer cells; NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily A - genetics; NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily B - genetics; original-article; Physiological aspects; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; Rheumatology; Rodents; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Species Specificity; Transcription activation; Variation; United States; United States > US; array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH); natural killer gene complex (NKC); natural killer (NK) cells; RFLPs
• ISSN: 1466-4879; 1476-5470
• DOI: 10.1038/gene.2010.48

The natural killer gene complex (NKC) on chromosome 6 contains clusters of genes that encode both activation and inhibitory receptors expressed on mouse natural killer (NK) cells. NKC genes, particularly belonging to the Nkrp1 and Ly49 gene families, display haplotype differences between different mouse strains and allelic polymorphisms of individual genes, as previously revealed by conventional analysis in a small number of inbred mouse strains. Herein we used array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) to efficiently compare the NKC in 21 mouse strains to the reference C57BL/6 strain. By using unsupervised clustering methods, we could sort these variations into the same groups as determined by previous RFLP analyses of Nkrp1 and Ly49 genes. Prospective analyses of aCGH and RFLP data validated these relationships. Moreover, aCGH data predicted monoclonal antibody reactivity with an allospecific determinant on molecules expressed by NK cells. Taken together, these data demonstrate the structural variation in the NKC between mouse strains as well as the usefulness of aCGH in analysis of complex, polymorphic gene clusters.