Spontaneous Frequency of H-2 Mutations

Abstract

The availability of single gene mutations involving the H-2 complex has been of great value in analyzing the fine structure of the murine MHC, as well as in defining particular loci, or epitopes associated with the products of those loci, in a wide variety of immunological functions. The H-2 ^dm2 mutation, for example, was instrumental in the identification and subsequent analysis of the H-2L locus (Hansen et al 1977; Hansen et al 1983; Levy and Hansen 1980, McKenzie et al 1977). Mutations of H-2K ^b and H- 2D ^b have been utilized to identify of epitopes involved in MHC restriction of cytotoxic T lymphocytes against a variety of cellular antigens and viruses, and the lone I region mutant H- 2 ^bm12, involving the A _β gene of the H-2 ^b haplotype, has been widely used in the fine dissection of genetic control of immune responsiveness by MHC class II loci (reviewed in Hansen et al 1983; Klein 1976; Klein 1978; Kohn et al 1978; LaFuse and David 1984; Levy and Hansen 1980, McKenzie et al 1977; Hansen et al 1984). The precise structural alterations in most of the mutations have been defined at the amino acid and/or nucleic acid sequence levels (Burnside et al 1984; Hemmi et al 1988; Martinko et al 1987; Nairn and Nathenson 1978; Nairn et al 1980, Nathenson et al 1986; Rubocki et al 1986; Sun et al 1985).