Secondary rearrangements and post-rearrangement selection contribute to restricted immunoglobulin DJH expression in young rabbit bone marrow.
Extrachromosomal circular DNA purified from bone marrow cells of 2-weeks-old rabbits was assayed by polymerase chain reaction to determine the relative rearrangement frequencies of immunoglobulin DH to JH genes in vivo. DH genes rearranged to individual JH genes with different frequencies. This bias did not correlate with potential sequence overlaps in the DH or JH coding sequences. The JH2 and JH4 genes were the preferred targets of recombination in primary rearrangements. Although primary rearrangements to JH6 were relatively infrequent, secondary rearrangements were detected. This assay also revealed previously undescribed JH pseudogenes with functional recombination signal sequences. Analyses of genomic VDJH indicated that B cells expressing VDJH4 heavy chains survived and dominated in the bone marrow environment due to secondary rearrangements and/or post-rearrangement selection.
Fitts
M G
MG
Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1892, USA.
Mage
R G
RG
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D004270:DNA, Circular; D015326:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte, Heavy Chain / Q000235:genetics*; D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments / Q000235:genetics; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007133:Immunoglobulin Joining Region / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011817:Rabbits
D004270:DNA, Circular; D007128:Immunoglobulin Fragments; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D007133:Immunoglobulin Joining Region