Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Immunology, Department of Tumor Immunology, Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wrocław, Poland.
PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44807. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044807. Epub 2012 Sep 11.
The recombination-activating genes (RAG-1 and RAG-2) encode a V(D)J recombinase responsible for rearrangements of antigen-receptor genes during T and B cell development, and RAG expression is known to correlate strictly with the process of rearrangement. In contrast to RAG-1, the expression of RAG-2 was not previously detected during any other stage of lymphopoiesis or in any other normal tissue. Here we report that the CpG island-associated promoter of the NWC gene (the third evolutionarily conserved gene in the RAG locus), which is located in the second intron of RAG-2, has bidirectional activity and is responsible for the detectable transcription of RAG-2 in some non-lymphoid tissues. We also identify evolutionarily conserved promoter fragments responsible for this bidirectional activity, and show that it is activated by transcription factor ZFP143. The possible implications of our findings are briefly discussed.
重组激活基因（RAG-1 和 RAG-2）编码 V(D)J 重组酶，该酶负责 T 和 B 细胞发育过程中抗原受体基因的重排，并且 RAG 的表达严格与重排过程相关。与 RAG-1 不同，RAG-2 的表达以前并未在淋巴样细胞发生的任何其他阶段或任何其他正常组织中检测到。在这里，我们报告 NWC 基因（RAG 基因座中第三个进化上保守的基因）与 CpG 岛相关的启动子位于 RAG-2 的第二个内含子中，具有双向活性，负责在一些非淋巴组织中检测到 RAG-2 的转录。我们还确定了负责这种双向活性的进化上保守的启动子片段，并表明它被转录因子 ZFP143 激活。我们的研究结果的可能意义简要讨论。
