Lack of N Regions in Antigen Receptor Variable Region Genes of TdT-Deficient Lymphocytes

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 261; no. 5125; pp. 1171 - 1175
• Main Authors: Komori, Toshihisa, Okada, Ami, Stewart, Valerie, Alt, Frederick W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 27.08.1993; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animals; Antigen receptors, T cell; B-Lymphocytes - enzymology; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Blastocyst; Cell lines; DNA Nucleotidylexotransferase - metabolism; DNA Nucleotidyltransferases - metabolism; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte; Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte; Genes, Immunoglobulin; Genes. Genome; Genomics; Germ cells; Immunoglobulin Joining Region - genetics; Immunoglobulin Variable Region - genetics; Lymphocytes; Mice; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleotides; Nucleotides - metabolism; Receptors; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell - genetics; Spleen; T cell antigen receptors; T cells; T lymphocytes; T-Lymphocytes - enzymology; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Temporal arteritis; Thymocytes; VDJ Recombinases; Immunoglobulins; T cell receptor; Nucleotide sequence; Enzyme; Deficiency; Variable region; Rodentia; Diversity; DNA nucleotidylexotransferase; Polymerase chain reaction; Immunogenetics; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Gene; Mouse; Lymphocyte
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.8356451

During the assembly of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor variable region genes from variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) segments, the germline-encoded repertoire is further diversified by processes that include the template-independent addition of nucleotides (N regions) at gene segment junctions. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-deficient lymphocytes had no N regions in their variable region genes, which shows that TdT is responsible for N region addition. In addition, certain variable region genes appeared at increased frequency in TdT-deficient thymocytes, which indicates that N region addition also influences repertoire development by alleviating sequence-specific constraints imposed on the joining of particular V, D, and J segments.