Correlation between DNase I hypersensitive sites and putative regulatory sequences in human immunoglobulin genes of the kappa light chain type.

The human lymphoid cell lines Walker and Daudi constitute a particularly suitable system for studies on the chromatin structure of K light chain genes (see preceding paper). The rearranged and non-rearranged alleles of Walker cells were found to be about equally sensitive towards digestion with DNAase I. A DNAase I hypersensitive site was mapped 0.13 kb upstream of the leader segment of the rearranged VK genes; it comprises a region in which promoter-like regulatory elements were discovered recently. Additional hypersensitive sites are located further upstream. A hypersensitive site in the JK-CK intron coincides with a putative tissue specific enhancer element. A hypersensitive region down-stream of CK overlaps with the cleavage/polyadenylation recognition signal which is flanked by sequences related to the above mentioned putative regulatory sequences. The coincidence between DNAase I hypersensitive sites and those sequences may be functionally significant.