Immunoglobulin kappa locus, also known as IGK@, is a region on the p arm of human

chromosome 2 Chromosome 2 is one of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 2 is the second-largest human chromosome, spanning more than 242 million base pairs and representing almost e ...

, region 11.2 (2p11.2), that contains

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

s for the kappa (κ) light chains of

antibodies An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

(or immunoglobulins). In humans the κ chain is coded for by V (variable), J (joining) and C (constant) genes in this region.Male, D., Brostoff, J., Roth, D.B., & Roitt, I. 2006. Immunology. 7th ed., Canada: Elsevier Limited These genes undergo

V(D)J recombination V(D)J recombination is the mechanism of somatic recombination that occurs only in developing lymphocytes during the early stages of T and B cell maturation. It results in the highly diverse repertoire of antibodies/immunoglobulins and T cell rece ...

to generate a diverse repertoire of immunoglobulins.

Genes

The immunoglobulin kappa locus contains the following genes: *

IGKC Immunoglobulin kappa constant, also known as IGKC, is a human gene that encodes the constant domain of kappa-type light chains for antibodies. It is found on chromosome 2, in humans, within the Immunoglobulin kappa locus, IGK@ Immunoglobulin ka ...

: immunoglobulin kappa constant * IGKJ@: immunoglobulin kappa joining group ** IGKJ1, IGKJ2, IGKJ3, IGKJ4, IGKJ5 * IGKV@: immunoglobulin kappa variable group ** IGKV1-5, IGKV1-6, IGKV1-8, IGKV1-9, IGKV1-12, IGKV1-16, IGKV1-17, IGKV1-27, IGKV1-33 ** IGKV1D-8, IGKV1D-12, IGKV1D-13, IGKV1D-16, IGKV1D-17, IGKV1D-22, IGKV1D-27, IGKV1D-32, IGKV1D-33, IGKV1D-39, IGKV1D-43 ** IGKV2-24, IGKV2-28, IGKV2-30, IGKV2-40 ** IGKV2D-26, IGKV2D-28, IGKV2D-29, IGKV2D-30, IGKV2D-40 ** IGKV3-11, IGKV3-15, IGKV3-20 ** IGKV3D-7, IGKV3D-11, IGKV3D-20 ** IGKV4-1 ** IGKV5-2 * and a number of non-functional and

pseudogene Pseudogenes are nonfunctional segments of DNA that resemble functional genes. Most arise as superfluous copies of functional genes, either directly by DNA duplication or indirectly by Reverse transcriptase, reverse transcription of an mRNA trans ...

Genes

References

Further reading