CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF HUMAN IMMUNOGLOBULIN-V-LAMBDA GENE SEGMENTS

To provide the building blocks for making synthetic antibody fragments we have used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to clone human variable (V) gene segments of lambda light chains. The PCR primers were based on the sequences of known human V(lambda) segments, and were used to isolate 14 new V(lambda) segments (including 4 pseudogenes) from a single individual.We have compiled a sequence directory from this data and other sources to include all known human V(lambda) segments with open reading frames and we have identified a new V(lambda) family (V(lambda) IX). Almost all of the segments (22/24) have different sequences in the complementarity-determining regions, setting a lower limit to the structural diversity of the antigen binding sites encoded by human V(lambda) genes in the human population.