Diverse splicing pathways of the membrane IgHM pre-mRNA in a Chondrostean, the Siberian sturgeon

• Published in: Developmental & Comparative Immunology
• Main Authors: Lundqvist, Mats, Strömberg, Siv, Bouchenot, Catherine, Pilstrom, Lars, Boudinot, Pierre
• Other Authors: Uppsala University, Unité de recherche Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires (VIM (UR 0892)), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2009
• Subjects: HEAVY CHAIN; STURGEON; IMMUNOGLOBULIN; TRANSMEMBRANE; B CELL RECEPTOR; BCR EVOLUTION; ACIPENSER BAERI; [SDV.IMM]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Immunology; Siberian sturgeon
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02659932; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dci.2008.10.009

International audience Teleosts and tetrapods have evolved different splice patterns to generate their membrane-bound IgM. In the tetrapod lineage, the first transmembrane exon is spliced to an internal cryptic site located close to the end of the fourth constant exon. Because teleosts lack this site they use the regular 30-splice site of the CH3 exon instead. We characterized the mm splicing patterns in a Chondrostean, the Siberian sturgeon. We observed a surprising diversity of splice patterns, the TM1 exon being spliced to a cryptic site at the end of CH4, to a cryptic site in CH3 or to the 30-end of CH1. These different pathways lead to mIGHM transcripts encoding four, two or one complete C-domain(s), respectively. The short variant CH1-TM1 was found only in VH2 positive transcripts, while the two other variants were observed for IgHM transcripts expressing all VH families. These results shed light on the evolution of IgM splicing pathways.