Defective V-to-J recombination of T cell receptor gamma chain genes in scid mice.

The status of T cell receptor gamma chain genes (TcR gamma) in 11 spontaneous T cell lymphomas from mice with severe combined immune deficiency (scid) was analyzed. We found that as a result of large abnormal deletions accompanying attempted site-specific V-to-J recombinations, 36 of 47 rearranged TcR gamma genes lacked the variable (V) and/or joining (J) region gene segment involved in this attempted recombination. No such deletions were found in T cell lymphomas from normal mice. We interpret our data as indicating a defective V-to-J recombination in scid lymphocytes consistent with our earlier observation of faulty D-to-J recombination in transformed scid lymphocytes (Schuler et al., Cell 1986. 46: 963). The present results further support the hypothesis that the scid mutation affects a component of the VDJ-recombinase system used in common by B and T cells to assemble antigen receptor genes.