Laboratory of Genome Integrity, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Laboratory of Genome Integrity, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA; The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel.
Cell Rep. 2019 Dec 24;29(13):4471-4481.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.11.088.
During V(D)J recombination, RAG proteins introduce DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) at recombination signal sequences (RSSs) that contain either 12- or 23-nt spacer regions. Coordinated 12/23 cleavage predicts that DSBs at variable (V) gene segments should equal the level of breakage at joining (J) segments. Contrary to this, here we report abundant RAG-dependent DSBs at multiple Vκ gene segments independent of V-J rearrangement. We find that a large fraction of Vκ gene segments are flanked not only by a bone-fide 12 spacer but also an overlapping, 23-spacer flipped RSS. These compatible pairs of RSSs mediate recombination and deletion inside the Vκ cluster even in the complete absence of Jκ gene segments and support a V(D)J recombination center (RC) independent of the conventional Jκ-centered RC. We propose an improved model of Vκ-Jκ repertoire formation by incorporating these surprisingly frequent, evolutionarily conserved intra-Vκ cluster recombination events.
在 V(D)J 重组过程中,RAG 蛋白在包含 12 或 23 个核苷酸间隔区的重组信号序列 (RSS) 处引入 DNA 双链断裂 (DSB)。协调的 12/23 切割预测,在可变 (V) 基因片段处的 DSB 应等于在连接 (J) 片段处的断裂水平。与这一预测相反,我们在这里报告了大量依赖于 RAG 的 DSB,这些 DSB 存在于多个 Vκ 基因片段中,而与 V-J 重排无关。我们发现,很大一部分 Vκ 基因片段不仅被真正的 12 个间隔子所包围,而且还被重叠的 23 个间隔子翻转的 RSS 所包围。这些相容的 RSS 对介导了 Vκ 基因簇内的重组和缺失,即使在完全缺乏 Jκ 基因片段的情况下也是如此,并支持了一个不依赖于传统以 Jκ 为中心的 RC 的 V(D)J 重组中心 (RC)。我们通过纳入这些令人惊讶的频繁、进化上保守的 Vκ 基因簇内重组事件,提出了一种改进的 Vκ-Jκ 库形成模型。