Abstract
The genomic organization of the IgH (Immunoglobulin heavy chain), Igκ (Immunoglobulin kappa chain), and Igλ (Immunoglobulin lambda chain) loci in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) was annotated using available genome data. The elephant IgH locus on scaffold 57 spans over 2,974 kb, and consists of at least 112 VH gene segments, 87 DH gene segments (the largest number in mammals examined so far), six JH gene segments, a single μ, a δ remnant, and eight γ genes (α and ε genes are missing, most likely due to sequence gaps). The Igκ locus, found on three scaffolds (202, 50 and 86), contains a total of 153 Vκ gene segments, three Jκ segments, and a single Cκ gene. Two different transcriptional orientations were determined for these Vκ gene segments. In contrast, the Igλ locus on scaffold 68 includes 15 Vλ gene segments, all with the same transcriptional polarity as the downstream Jλ-Cλ cluster. These data suggest that the elephant immunoglobulin gene repertoire is highly diverse and complex. Our results provide insights into the immunoglobulin genes in a placental mammal that is evolutionarily distant from humans, mice, and domestic animals.
Highlights
The elephant is the biggest terrestrial placental mammal alive today. It belongs to the order Proboscidea and the family elephantidae, which contains only two existing species: the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana)
The elephant immunoglobulin gene sequences were retrieved from the UCSC genome browser
The public elephant genome assembly used in this study was loxAfr3, which is an assembly of the genome of the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana), sequenced to 76 coverage
Summary
The elephant is the biggest terrestrial placental mammal alive today. It belongs to the order Proboscidea and the family elephantidae, which contains only two existing species: the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Whereas some species of the former two lineages are still alive today, the last representative of the Mammuthus lineage, the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), became extinct very recently (about 3.7 thousand years ago) [1]. Little is known about the elephant immunoglobulins, except for serological testing for IgM [18], IgG [19,20], and IgA [21]. It was reported that there were at least five subclasses of IgG in African elephant sera, with no apparent IgM or IgA [20]
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