Subgroup IV of human immunoglobulin K light chains is encoded by a single germline gene.

The series of studies on the human K light chain genes of the various subgroups is concluded by this report on the isolation and nucleotide sequence determination of a functional VKIV gene (abbreviations ref. 1) and its germline counterpart. The rearranged gene which stems from a lymphoid cell line and the germline gene differ in four nucleotides which can be attributed to somatic mutations; three of the mutations are clustered in CDR3. The germline gene regions of two unrelated individuals were identical over a stretch of 1267 bp. By hybridization experiments it is shown that the human K locus contains only one VKIV gene. In 16 lymphoid cell lines studied here, the VKIV gene is frequently deleted or aberrantly rearranged which may be a consequence of peculiarities of its function and/or its structural organization.