Summary
To investigate the biological significance of polypurine/polypyrimidine (pur/pyr) tract sequences in the human MHC region, we searched both DNA strands for sequences longer than 100 nt with an A+G% (AG%) higher than 85% (A+G tract). Among all human genome sequences registered in DDBJ (ca. 32 Mb in total), we obtained 6247 A+G tracts. There exists one tract per 51 kb and therefore, roughly one tract per one replicon size. One hundred seventeen tracts (one tract per 33 kb) were found in the MHC region, which is a significantly higher level than that usually found in human genome segments. One of the A+G tracts is found in the DNA-replication switch region at the junction of MHC classes II and III. Other tracts were examined in connection with polymorphism levels of several MHC genes. We also investigated apparently long A+G tracts in the entire human genome. The longest A+G tract found so far is the 2798-nt tract found in the 3’ downstream region of rRNA genes. The biological significance of the long A+G tracts was investigated in connection with triplex formation, pausing of DNA replication, and enhancement of recombination.
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Kanaya, S., Fukagawa, T., Ando, A., Inoko, H., Kudo, Y., Ikemura, T. (2000). Distribution of polypurine/polypyrimidine tract sequences in the human MHC region and their possible functions. In: Kasahara, M. (eds) Major Histocompatibility Complex. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-65868-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-65868-9_9
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