DNA clones containing mouse immunoglobulin kappa chain genes isolated by in vitro packaging into phage lambda coats.

Endonuclease EcoRI-digested DNAs from BALB/c mouse embryos and MOPC 321 (a kappa chain secretor) myeloma were fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the DNA fragments containing part or all of the MOPC 321 kappa chain structural gene sequences were visualized by the Southern gel blotting technique using as the hybridization probes pCRI plasmids containing all or part of the enzymatically synthesized cDNA transcripts of the MOPC 321 kappa chain mRNA. The clear differences observed in the hybridization patterns of the two DNAs are in agreement with our previously reported results obtained with endonuclease BamHI and confirms that the sequence arrangement of kappa chain genes is different in the embryo and myeloma cells. We have cloned most of the kappa-sequence-positive EcoRI DNA fragments in Charon 4A phage by using the highly efficient in vitro phage lambda DNA packaging method, and we have characterized the cloned mouse DNA sequences by agarose gel blotting and R-loop mapping in electron microscopy. These studies identified, among others, one EcoRI DNA fragment which contains both variable and constant immunoglobulin kappa-gene sequences and is present only in the myeloma DNA. The two sequences are separated by a 2.8-kbase intron. We tentatively conclude that the kappa gene sequences on this DNA fragment underwent somatic rearrangement.