title: Targeting of AID-mediated sequence diversification to immunoglobulin genes.
abstract: Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is a key enzyme for antibody-mediated immune responses. Antibodies are encoded by the immunoglobulin genes and AID acts as a transcription-dependent DNA mutator on these genes to improve antibody affinity and effector functions. An emerging theme in field is that many transcribed genes are potential targets of AID, presenting an obvious danger to genomic integrity. Thus there are mechanisms in place to ensure that mutagenic outcomes of AID activity are specifically restricted to the immunoglobulin loci. Cis-regulatory targeting elements mediate this effect and their mode of action is probably a combination of immunoglobulin gene specific activation of AID and a perversion of faithful DNA repair towards error-prone outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Immunology Unit, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology, National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Research Center, 251 Bayview Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Naga Rama
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Kothapalli
authors.forename: Sebastian D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Fugmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003564:Cytidine Deaminase / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D000098830:AICDA (Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase)
chemical_list: D000098830:AICDA (Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase); D003564:Cytidine Deaminase