Germline transcripts of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain and T cell receptor genes in a murine hematopoietic stem cell line LyD9 and its derivative cell lines.

We compared germline transcript levels of immunoglobulin heavy chain and T cell receptor (TcR) genes in a murine hematopoietic stem cell line, LyD9, and its derivative cell lines. LyD9 cells can be induced to differentiate into at least three lineages, namely, B lymphocyte, macrophage, and granulocyte lineages. Although C mu transcripts were found in stem cells to B lymphocytes, other myeloid-committed cells also expressed significant amounts of C mu transcripts. Germline TcR transcripts did not show good correlation with differentiation potential and stages of hematopoietic cells. During this search we identified a novel germline transcript containing the JH-C microliter sequence in LyD9 and some of its derivative cells. Expression of mRNAs for immunoglobulin- and TcR-associated molecules (lambda 5, MB1 and CD3 delta) was widespread except for lambda 5 mRNA. Among three mRNAs encoding putative recombinase proteins, RAG-1 and RAG-2 mRNAs were not expressed in any cell lines tested, while RBP-2 mRNA was expressed ubiquitously.