Organisation and Evolution of Mouse Major Histocompatibility Genes

Abstract

Barely five years have passed since the first cDNA clones derived from class I genes in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) were isolated and characterised. Since then, an extraordinary amount of information concerning the structure, organisation and expression of class I genes has been gathered. It is my intention in this report to present an overview of these structural data and show how they have shaped our current understanding of the evolution and function of this large family of highly homologous genes, some of which code for cell surface antigens which are of crucial importance in immune responses¹. For economy of space, I will restrict myself to a discussion of the murine class I gene family, which is much better characterised, as far as gene linkage is concerned, than the human class I gene family. However, many of the general points about the structure of class I genes seem to apply equally well to mouse or human genes.