title: Pronounced cohabitation of active immunoglobulin genes from three different chromosomes in transcription factories during maximal antibody synthesis.
abstract: To understand the relationships between nuclear organization and gene expression in a model system, we employed three-dimensional imaging and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-chromosome conformation capture (3C) techniques to investigate the topographies of the immunoglobulin (Ig) genes and transcripts during B-cell development. Remarkably, in plasma cells, when antibody synthesis peaks, active Ig genes residing on three different chromosomes exhibit pronounced colocalizations in transcription factories, often near the nuclear periphery, and display trans-chromosomal enhancer interactions, and their transcripts frequently share interchromatin trafficking channels. Conceptually, these features of nuclear organization maximize coordinated transcriptional and transcript trafficking control for potentiating the optimal cytoplasmic assembly of the resulting translation products into protein multimers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA;
authors.forename: Sung-Kyun
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA; Tianjin Research Center of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China;
authors.forename: Yougui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Depatment of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA;
authors.forename: William T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Garrard
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000235:genetics*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin / Q000235:genetics*; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D051379:Mice
keywords: RNA trafficking; enhancers; immunoglobulin genes; long-range interactions; nuclear organization; transcription factories