Figure 1.

Deletions and insertions in nonfunctional V_H region genes. The figure schematically shows the deletions (Δ) and insertions (ins., insertion; dupl., duplication) within the 12 nonfunctional V_H gene rearrangements amplified from GC B cells. The lengths of the deletions/insertions are indicated. Sequence 4 shows a long deletion; 35 bp of unknown origin are inserted into the deleted region. In sequence 7, the two parts of the 52-bp duplication are separated by a sequence stretch of 27 bp. Sequence 12 must have acquired the duplications before the deletion event happened because the deleted region is still present in both downstream duplicated regions.