title: AID to overcome the limitations of genomic information.
abstract: The limitations of genomic information forced our ancestors to adopt a strategy for introducing somatic DNA alterations with the risk of genome instability. Although activation-induced deaminase (AID) is involved in DNA cleavage in somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination, its mechanism of action has been debated extensively, with the two main hypotheses being distinguished by the chief target of AID: RNA or DNA. The principle distinction between the two hypotheses is the requirement for translation of edited mRNA or uracil removal from DNA for DNA cleavage. Although a series of experiments has provided support for the 'RNA-editing' hypothesis and requires reevaluation of the 'DNA-deamination' hypothesis, definitive proof is yet to come.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8501 Japan. honjo@mfour.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp <honjo@mfour.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
authors.forename: Tasuku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Honjo
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.forename: Reiko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shinkura
authors.forename: Masamichi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000502:physiology*; D017578:Immunoglobulin Class Switching / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D009700:Nucleoside Deaminases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D017393:RNA Editing / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D027041:Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D009700:Nucleoside Deaminases