Organization of the murine Ig-related lambda 5 gene transcribed selectively in pre-B lymphocytes.

lambda 5 is an immunoglobulin lambda light chain-related gene which is selectively transcribed in murine pre-B lymphocytes to yield a 1.2 kb poly(A)+ mRNA. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of a 1 kb cDNA clone with the sequence of a genomic clone isolated from 70Z/3 murine pre-B lymphoma cells shows lambda 5 is composed of three exons spanning a 3.75 kb DNA segment. Conserved splice signal sequences at all exon/intron boundaries and the presence of a long open reading frame indicate that a functional mRNA molecule can be made. Exon I contains a cap-site and a potential ATG start codon as well as sequences encoding a signal peptide. This gene could encode a lambda 5 protein of 209 amino acids which has, however, not yet been identified. The 3' portion of exon II and all of exon III shows strong sequence homologies to J lambda L and C lambda L exons. Homology to the lambda L chain genes is lost in the 5' portion of exon II and throughout exon I. In exon I short homologies to leader sequences and to VH framework 1 sequences are seen.     

An integrated database of the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis: towards functional genomics

An integrated genome database is essential for future studies of functional genomics. In this study, we update cDNA and genomic resources of the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis, and provide an integrated database of the genomic and cDNA data by extending a database published previously. The updated resources include over 190,000 ESTs (672,396 in total together with the previous ESTs) and over 1,000 full-insert sequences (6,773 in total). In addition, results of mapping information of the determined scaffolds onto chromosomes, ESTs from a full-length enriched cDNA library for indication of precise 5'-ends of genes, and comparisons of SNPs and indels among different individuals are integrated into this database, all of these results being reported recently. These advances continue to increase the utility of Ciona intestinalis as a model organism whilst the integrated database will be useful for researchers in comparative and evolutionary genomics.