The human beta 2-microglobulin gene. Primary structure and definition of the transcriptional unit.

The human genomic clone pb2m13 contains a functional beta 2-microglobulin (B2m) gene, which upon transfection is readily expressed in murine fibroblasts. Here we report the nucleotide sequence of the human beta 2m gene and of a nearly full length cDNA clone. A comparison with the murine beta 2m gene reveals that exon/intron boundaries are absolutely conserved. In the protein-coding regions the similarity is 70%. As far as intron sequences of the murine beta 2m gene are available, no significant similarity between human and murine genes is observed. The transcriptional start site of the human beta 2m gene was determined by S1 mapping, and comparison with the nearly full length cDNA clone now defines the transcriptional unit of the beta 2m gene. In the 5' region of the gene strong clustering of the usually underrepresented CpG dinucleotide is found resembling a similar overrepresentation in the 5' regions of the major histocompatibility complex class I genes.