Mechanism of IgM polymerization.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 71 ·No. 3 ·1974-03-00 ·Pages 657-61

Chapuis RM, Koshland ME

Abstract

The stoichiometry of J chain in pentamer IgM has been determined by measuring the radiolabeled thiols in the constituent chains after complete reduction and alkylation of the polymer. One mole of J was found to be disulfide bonded to 1 mol of pentamer. The linkage of J chain in IgM has been determined by correlating the J disulfides cleaved with the subunits released after limited reduction and alkylation of the polymer. The analyses showed that: (a) Significant amounts of monomers, as well as small quantities of dimers, trimers, and tetramers, were generated by the reducing conditions employed. (b) The number of J disulfide bonds broken did not correspond to the extent of depolymerization. (c) No J disulfides were cleaved in the J-containing dimer products of the limited reduction. These data demonstrated that the J chain is located as a disulfide clasp between two of the IgM monomer subunits. From the observed linkage, the assembly of IgM is postulated to proceed by a series of sequential disulfide exchanges beginning with the formation of the J-containing dimer.

MeSH Terms

Alkylation Carbon Radioisotopes Chemical Phenomena Chemistry Cysteine/analysis Cystine/analysis Dithiothreitol Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel Humans Immunoglobulin J-Chains Immunoglobulin M/analysis Iodoacetates Oxidation-Reduction Polymers Tritium

Chemicals

Carbon Radioisotopes Immunoglobulin J-Chains Immunoglobulin M Iodoacetates Polymers Tritium Cystine Cysteine Dithiothreitol

Authors & Affiliations

2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID

Chapuis R M

Koshland M E

References (21)

21 references, click to expand

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Article Info

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Abbr.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

ISSN

0027-8424

DOI

10.1073/pnas.71.3.657

Published

1974-03-00

Pages

657-61

Language

English

Region

United States

NLM ID

7505876

PMCID

PMC388071

Subset

External Links

PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.71.3.657 PMC Full Text View journal details

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