Rearrangement of immunoglobulin kappa gene in a variant-type Burkitt lymphoma cell line, KOBK101, carrying a translocation between chromosomes 2 and 8.

The immunoglobulin kappa light-chain gene was rearranged in a Burkitt lymphoma cell line with the t(2;8) (p11;q24) translocation, KOBK101, showing recombination between the variable and the joining regions on one allele and an aberrant substitution of the region upstream of the J5 segment with an unknown sequence on another allele. Because DNA segments homologous to the consensus sequences of joining and switching regions of immunoglobulin genes were detected in the unknown sequence, we speculate that the system for either V-J or switching recombination in immunoglobulin genes may be involved in forming this unusual rearrangement.