Gene conversion and polymorphism: generation of mouse immunoglobulin gamma 2a chain alleles by differential gene conversion by gamma 2b chain gene

We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the C57BL/6 allele of the mouse immunoglobulin gamma 2a chain gene. A comparison with the BALB/c gamma 2a gene for 1912 nucleotides reveals that the two alleles exhibit extensive divergence, since there are 138 single-base-pair differences and 8 insertions or deletions. We have compared the two gamma 2a alleles with the two corresponding gamma 2b alleles, which differ in only 12 positions. It appears that among the 134 differences between the two gamma 2a alleles, 70 are at positions where gamma 2a and gamma 2b are identical in the BALB/c haplotype and 54 are at positions where gamma 2a and gamma 2b are identical in the C57BL/6 haplotype. All these results suggest that nonreciprocal gene conversion between nonallelic genes can introduce sequence homogeneity in linked genes and can generate extensive divergence and polymorphism in allelic genes. We suggest that the gamma 2a and gamma 2b gene ancestors freely diverged after duplication, and that the conversion events were promoted by a deletion shortening the distance between the two loci.