Intermolecular V(D)J recombination

V(D)J recombination plays a prominent role in the generation of the antigen receptor repertoires of B and T lymphocytes. It is also likely to be involved in the formation of chromosomal translocations, some of which may result from interchromosomal recombination. We have investigated the potential of the V(D)J recombination machinery to perform intermolecular recombination between two plasmids, either unlinked or linked by catenation. In either case, recombination occurs in trans to yield signal and coding joints, and the results do not support the existence of a mechanistic block to the formation of coding joints in trans. Instead, we observe that linearization of the substrate, which does not alter the cis or trans status of the recombination signals, causes a specific and dramatic reduction in coding joint formation. This unexpected result leads us to propose a "release and recapture" model for V(D)J recombination in which coding ends are frequently released from the postcleavage complex and the efficiency of coding joint formation is influenced by the efficiency with which such ends are recaptured by the complex. This implies the existence of mechanisms, operative during recombination of chromosomal substrates, that act to prevent coding end release or to facilitate coding end recapture.     

Novel strand exchanges in V(D)J recombination

We describe novel products of V(D)J recombination in which signal sequences become joined to coding elements, in contrast to the standard reaction whose products are junctions of two signal sequences or two coding elements. In this variant reaction, the recombination machinery evidently recognizes signal sequences and introduces strand breaks at the normal positions, but then connects the elements in unusual combinations. The lack of fixed directionality indicates that recombination sites are not uniquely aligned when strand exchange occurs. The discovery of these variant junctions suggests a model for the evolution of the antigen receptor loci.     

Postcleavage sequence specificity in V(D)J recombination

Unintended DNA rearrangements in a differentiating lymphocyte can have severe, oncogenic consequences, but the mechanisms for avoiding pathogenic outcomes in V(D)J recombination are not well understood. The first level at which fidelity is instituted is in discrimination by the recombination proteins between authentic and inauthentic recombination signal sequences. Nevertheless, this discrimination is not absolute and cannot fully eliminate targeting errors. To learn more about the basis of specificity during V(D)J recombination, we have investigated whether it is possible for the recombination machinery to detect an inaccurately targeted sequence subsequent to cleavage. These studies indicate that even postcleavage steps in V(D)J recombination are sequence specific and that noncanonical sequences will not efficiently support the resolution of recombination intermediates in vivo. Accordingly, interventions after a mistargeting event conceivably occur at a late stage in the joining process and the likelihood may well be crucial to enforcing fidelity during antigen receptor gene rearrangement.     

RAG-mediated V(D)J recombination is not essential for tumorigenesis in Atm-deficient mice

Atm-deficient mice die of malignant thymic lymphomas characterized by translocations within the Tcr alpha/delta locus, suggesting that tumorigenesis is secondary to aberrant responses to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) breaks that occur during RAG-dependent V(D)J recombination. We recently demonstrated that development of thymic lymphoma in Atm(-/-) mice was not prevented by loss of RAG-2. Thymic lymphomas that developed in Rag2(-/-) Atm(-/-) mice contained multiple chromosomal abnormalities, but none of these involved the Tcr alpha/delta locus. These findings indicated that tumorigenesis in Atm(-/-) mice is mediated by chromosomal translocations secondary to aberrant responses to dsDNA breaks and that V(D)J recombination is an important, but not essential, event in susceptibility. In contrast to these findings, it was recently reported that Rag1(-/-) Atm(-/-) mice do not develop thymic lymphomas, a finding that was interpreted as demonstrating a requirement for RAG-dependent recombination in the susceptibility to tumors in Atm-deficient mice. To test the possibility that RAG-1 and RAG-2 differ in their roles in tumorigenesis, we studied Rag1(-/-) Atm(-/-) mice in parallel to our previous Rag2(-/-) Atm(-/-) study. We found that thymic lymphomas occur at high frequency in Rag1(-/-) Atm(-/-) mice and resemble those that occur in Rag2(-/-) Atm(-/-) mice. These results indicate that both RAG-1 and RAG-2 are necessary for tumorigenesis involving translocation in the Tcr alpha/delta locus but that Atm deficiency leads to tumors through a broader RAG-independent predisposition to translocation, related to a generalized defect in dsDNA break repair.     

V(D)J recombination intermediates and non-standard products in XRCC4-deficient cells.

V(D)J recombination assembles immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptor (TCR) gene segments during lymphocyte development. Recombination is initiated by the RAG-1 and RAG-2 proteins, which introduce double-stranded DNA breaks (DSB) adjacent to the Ig and TCR gene segments. The broken ends are joined by the DSB repair machinery, which includes the XRCC4 protein. While XRCC4 is essential for both DSB repair and V(D)J recombination, the functions of this protein remain enigmatic. Because the rare V(D)J recombination products isolated from XRCC4-deficient cells generally show evidence of excessive nucleotide loss, it was hypothesized that XRCC4 may function to protect broken DNA ends. Here we report the first examination of V(D)J recombination intermediates in XRCC4-deficient cells. We found that both types of intermediates, signal ends and coding ends, are abundant in the absence of XRCC4. Furthermore, the signal ends are full length. We also showed that alternative V(D)J recombination products, hybrid joints, form with normal efficiency and without excessive deletion in XRCC4-deficient cells. These data indicate that impaired formation of V(D)J recombination products in XRCC4-deficient cells does not result from excessive degradation of recombination intermediates. Potential roles of XRCC4 in the joining reaction are discussed.     

V(D)J recombination gets a break.

The diversity of immunoglobulins and T cell receptors is largely due to the assembly of functional genes from separate segments. The mechanism by which these gene fragments are joined is starting to be deciphered, with broken DNA molecules that may be intermediates in the reaction providing a new clue.     

V(D)J recombination and RAG-mediated transposition in yeast

Antigen receptor genes are assembled during lymphoid development by a specialized recombination reaction normally observed only in cells of the vertebrate immune system. Here, we show that expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae of murine RAG1 and RAG2, the lymphoid-specific components of the V(D)J recombinase, is sufficient to induce V(D)J cleavage and rejoining in this lower eukaryote. The RAG proteins cleave recombination substrates introduced into yeast cells, generating signal ends that can be joined to form signal joints. These signal joints are precise, as in mammalian cells, and their formation is dependent on a yeast nonhomologous end-joining protein, the XRCC4 homolog LIF1. Moreover, joining of SmaI-generated blunt ends is generally imprecise in the yeast strain used here, suggesting that the RAG proteins influence signal-end joining. Cleaved signal ends are also transposed into new sites in DNA, allowing RAG-induced transposition to be studied in vivo.     

Both V(D)J recombination and radioresistance require DNA-PK kinase activity, though minimal levels suffice for V(D)J recombination

DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is utilized in both DNA double-strand break repair (DSBR) and V(D)J recombination, but the mechanism by which this multiprotein complex participates in these proces­ses is unknown. To evaluate the importance of DNA-PK-mediated protein phosphorylation in DSBR and V(D)J recombination, we assessed the effects of the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin on the repair of ionizing radiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks and V(D)J recombination in the V(D)J recombinase inducible B cell line HDR37. Wortmannin radiosensitized HDR37, but had no affect on V(D)J recombination despite a marked reduction in DNA-PK activity. On the other hand, studies with mammalian expression vectors for wild-type human DNA-PK catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) and a kinase domain mutant demonstrated that only the kinase active form of DNA-PKcs can reconstitute DSBR and V(D)J recombination in a DNA-PKcs-deficient cell line (Sf19), implying that DNA-PKcs kinase activity is essential for both DSBR and V(D)J recombination. These apparently contradictory results were reconciled by analyses of cell lines varying in their expression of recombinant wild-type human DNA-PKcs. These studies establish that minimal DNA-PKcs protein levels are sufficient to support V(D)J recombination, but insufficient to confer resistance to ionizing radiation.     

Stimulation of V(D)J recombination by histone acetylation

V(D)J recombination assembles functional immunoglobulin and T cell receptor genes from individual gene segments [1]. A common recombination mechanism, initiated by the proteins RAG1 and RAG2 at conserved recombination signal sequences (RSSs), operates at all rearranging loci [2] [3]. It has been proposed that the key regulator of the reaction is 'accessibility' of the RSS within chromatin [4]. Recently, the packaging of RSSs into nucleosomes was shown to inhibit initiation of V(D)J recombination [5] [6]. Nevertheless, the tight tissue specificity of regulation cannot be explained by nucleosome-mediated repression alone because a significant fraction of RSSs would be predicted to lie in linker regions between nucleosomes. Therefore, some aspect of the regulation of the recombination reaction must rely on the disruption of higher-order chromatin structure. Here, we report that histone acetylation directly stimulates the recombination reaction in vivo in the correct cell- and stage-specific manner. Neither expression of RAG genes nor activity of RAG proteins was increased by acetylation. Furthermore, histone acetylation failed to overcome nucleosome-mediated repression of RSS recognition and cleavage in vitro. Our data suggest a role for histone acetylation in stimulating recombination in vivo through disruption of higher-order chromatin structures.     

Regulation of V(D)J recombination by transcriptional promoters

Enhancer elements potentiate the rearrangement of antigen receptor loci via changes in the accessibility of gene segment clusters to V(D)J recombinase. Here, we show that enhancer activity per se is insufficient to target T-cell receptor beta miniloci for DbetaJbeta recombination. Instead, a promoter situated 5' to Dbeta1 (PDbeta) was required for efficient rearrangement of chromosomal substrates. A critical function for promoters in regulating gene segment accessibility was further supported by the ability of heterologous promoters to direct rearrangement of enhancer-containing substrates. Importantly, activation of a synthetic tetracycline-inducible promoter (Ptet) positioned upstream from the Dbeta gene segment was sufficient to target recombination of miniloci lacking a distal enhancer element. The latter result suggests that DNA loops, generated by interactions between flanking promoter and enhancer elements, are not required for efficient recognition of chromosomal gene segments by V(D)J recombinase. Unexpectedly, the Ptet substrate exhibited normal levels of rearrangement despite its retention of a hypermethylated DNA status within the DbetaJbeta cluster. Together, our findings support a model in which promoter activation, rather than intrinsic properties of enhancers, is the primary determinant for regulating recombinational accessibility within antigen receptor loci.     

RAG蛋白在V（D）J重组中的作用

V（D）J重组分为两步,第一步是对特定DNA序列的识别和切割,第二步是断理解末端的解离和重接。V（D）J重组过程中的切割是由RAG蛋白介导的,RAG蛋白在第二阶段起什么样的作用还是一个模糊的问题,但目前已有实验显示RAG蛋白在末端重接反应中亦起着重要的结构性（或许还有催化性）作用。RAG蛋白激活V（D）J重组的活性还受其它一些因素的调节。所有这些都揭示RAG蛋白在其他因素辅助下参与了V（D）J重组的全过程。     

RAG1 core and V(D)J recombination signal sequences were derived from Transib transposons

The V(D)J recombination reaction in jawed vertebrates is catalyzed by the RAG1 and RAG2 proteins, which are believed to have emerged approximately 500 million years ago from transposon-encoded proteins. Yet no transposase sequence similar to RAG1 or RAG2 has been found. Here we show that the approximately 600-amino acid “core” region of RAG1 required for its catalytic activity is significantly similar to the transposase encoded by DNA transposons that belong to the Transib superfamily. This superfamily was discovered recently based on computational analysis of the fruit fly and African malaria mosquito genomes. Transib transposons also are present in the genomes of sea urchin, yellow fever mosquito, silkworm, dog hookworm, hydra, and soybean rust. We demonstrate that recombination signal sequences (RSSs) were derived from terminal inverted repeats of an ancient Transib transposon. Furthermore, the critical DDE catalytic triad of RAG1 is shared with the Transib transposase as part of conserved motifs. We also studied several divergent proteins encoded by the sea urchin and lancelet genomes that are 25%−30% identical to the RAG1 N-terminal domain and the RAG1 core. Our results provide the first direct evidence linking RAG1 and RSSs to a specific superfamily of DNA transposons and indicate that the V(D)J machinery evolved from transposons. We propose that only the RAG1 core was derived from the Transib transposase, whereas the N-terminal domain was assembled from separate proteins of unknown function that may still be active in sea urchin, lancelet, hydra, and starlet sea anemone. We also suggest that the RAG2 protein was not encoded by ancient Transib transposons but emerged in jawed vertebrates as a counterpart of RAG1 necessary for the V(D)J recombination reaction.     

Wild-type V(D)J recombination in scid pre-B cells.

Homozygous mutation at the scid locus in the mouse results in the aberrant rearrangement of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene segments. We introduced a retroviral vector containing an inversional immunoglobulin rearrangement cassette into scid pre-B cells. Most rearrangements were accompanied by large deletions, consistent with previously characterized effects of the scid mutation. However, two cell clones were identified which contained perfect reciprocal fragments and wild-type coding joints, documenting, on a molecular level, the ability of scid pre-B cells to generate functional protein-coding domains. Subsequent rearrangement of the DGR cassette in one of these clones was accompanied by a deletion, suggesting that this cell clone had not reverted the scid mutation. Indeed, induced rearrangement of the endogenous kappa loci in these two cell clones resulted in a mixture of scid and wild-type V-J kappa joints, as assayed by a polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing. In addition, three immunoglobulin mu- scid pre-B cell lines showed both scid and wild-type V-J kappa joins. These experiments strongly suggest that the V(D)J recombinase activity in scid lymphoid cells is diminished but not absent, consistent with the known leakiness of the scid mutation.     

Definition of a core region of RAG-2 that is functional in V(D)J recombination.

The products of the RAG-1 and RAG-2 genes cooperate to allow V(D)J recombination in lymphoid and non-lymphoid cells. As one step toward understanding the role of RAG-2, we have constructed mutated RAG-2 genes and examined their ability to support recombination of plasmid substrates in a fibroblast cell line. The mutations define essential and dispensable parts of the RAG-2 gene. Mutations in the N-terminal part eliminate almost all activity. In the central region of the protein, some but not all local alterations still allow recombination. On the other hand, proteins with large deletions from the C-terminal end, including one truncated by 25%, still retain activity, even though this part of the protein is highly conserved between species. Similar results were obtained with substrates that retain either a signal joint or a coding joint, or perform an inversion. Thus all basic features of V(D)J joining are retained in a RAG-2 protein with only the first 75% of the sequence.     

V(D)J recombination: site-specific cleavage and repair

V(D)J recombination is a site-specific gene rearrangement process that contributes to the diversity of antigen receptor repertoires. Two lymphoid-specific proteins, RAG1 and RAG2, initiate this process at two recombination signal sequences. Due to the recent development of an in vitro assay for V(D)J cleavage, the mechanism of cleavage has been elucidated clearly. The RAG complex recognizes a recombination signal sequence, makes a nick at the border between signal and coding sequence, and carries out a transesterification reaction, resulting in the production of a hairpin structure at the coding sequence and DNA double-strand breaks at the signal ends. RAG1 possesses the active site of the V(D)J recombinase although RAG2 is essential for signal binding and cleavage. After DNA cleavage by the RAG complex, the broken DNA ends are rejoined by the coordinated action of DNA double-strand break repair proteins as well as the RAG complex. The junctional variability resulting from imprecise joining of the coding sequences contributes additional diversity to the antigen receptors.     

Regulation of V(D)J recombination by nucleosome positioning at recombination signal sequences

A key component in the regulation of V(D)J recombination is control of the accessibility of RAG proteins to recombination signal sequences (RSS). Nucleosomes are known to inhibit this accessibility. We show here that the signal sequence itself represses accessibility by causing nucleosome positioning over the RSS. This positioning is mediated, in vitro and in vivo, by the conserved nonamer of the RSS. Consistent with this strong positioning, nucleosomes at RSSs are resistant to remodelling by nucleosome sliding. In vivo we find that consensus RSSs are preferentially protected, whereas those that lack a consensus nonamer, including some cryptic RSSs, fail to position nucleosomes. Decreased protection of these non-consensus RSSs correlates with their increased use in recombination assays. We therefore suggest that nucleosome positioning by RSSs provides a previously unanticipated level of protection and regulation of V(D)J recombination.