The red deer (Cervus elaphus) contains two expressed major histocompatibililty complex class II DQB genes

Swarbrick, P A
Crawford, A M

P A Swarbrick, A M Crawford, AgResearch Molecular Biology Unit, Department of Biochemistry and Centre for Gene Research, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Correspondence: Dr Allan M Crawford.

Accepted 21 October 1996

Animal Genetics 28(1):p 49-51, February 1997.

The highly variable second exons of the red deer (Cervus elaphus) major histocompatibility complex (MHC) DQB genes were cloned and sequenced. Eight different expressed DQB sequences were isolated from four unrelated red deer. Either two or three different DQB sequences were isolated from each individual, demonstrating that more than one DQB gene is expressed in red deer. This is consistent with other ruminants, which also have multiple expressed copies of the DQB gene. The sequences ranged in similarity from 81.3% to 97.6% with an average similarity of 90.2%; this indicates that at least one of the DQB genes is highly polymorphic.