Structural requirements for polymeric immunoglobulin assembly and association with J chain
EM Yoo, MJ Coloma, KR Trinh, TQ Nguyen… - Journal of Biological …, 1999 - ASBMB
Both IgM and IgA exist as polymeric immunoglobulins. IgM is assembled into pentamers with
J chain and hexamers lacking J chain. In contrast, polymeric IgA exists mostly as dimers with
J chain. Both IgM and IgA possess an 18-amino acid extension of the C terminus (the tail-
piece (tp)) that participates in polymerization through a penultimate cysteine residue. The
IgM (μtp) and IgA (αtp) tail-pieces differ at seven amino acid positions. However, the tail-
pieces by themselves do not determine the extent of polymerization. We now show that the …
J chain and hexamers lacking J chain. In contrast, polymeric IgA exists mostly as dimers with
J chain. Both IgM and IgA possess an 18-amino acid extension of the C terminus (the tail-
piece (tp)) that participates in polymerization through a penultimate cysteine residue. The
IgM (μtp) and IgA (αtp) tail-pieces differ at seven amino acid positions. However, the tail-
pieces by themselves do not determine the extent of polymerization. We now show that the …
