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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Transfus Apher Sci. 2011 Jan 28;44(1):81–91. doi: 10.1016/j.transci.2010.12.013

Figure 3. RHD/RHCE hairpin formation.

Figure 3

The schematic diagram depicts the mechanism of gene conversion at the Rhesus gene locus on one chromosome. (i) The RHD and RHCE genes are inversely orientated, which is typical for clustered genes. (ii) A hairpin formation of the chromosome would generate the close proximity of homologous segments in identical orientation. This structural feature is generally instrumental in gene conversion events in cis. (iii) Resolving the hairpin yields an RHD-CE-D hybrid gene structure, many of which have been observed to date at the RH gene locus. The RHD-CE(4–7)-D hybrid exon structure shown here is an example. Modified from Wagner et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Reprinted with permission.