DNase I hypersensitive sites in the chromatin of human μ immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes
- 1 December 1983
- journal article
- letter
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature
- Vol. 306 (5945), 809-812
- https://doi.org/10.1038/306809a0
Abstract
An immunoglobulin polypeptide chain is encoded by multiple gene segments that lie far apart in germ-line DNA and must be brought together to allow expression of an immunoglobulin gene active in B lymphocytes. For the immunoglobulin heavy chain genes, one of many variable (V) region genes becomes joined to one of several diversity (D) segments which are fused to one of several joining (J) segments lying 5′ of the constant region (C) genes1,2. Here we show that the rearranged μ genes of an IgM-producing human B-lymphocyte cell line exhibit pancreatic deoxyribonuclease (DNase I) hypersensitive sites in the JH–Cμ intron that are absent in naked DNA or the chromatin of other differentiated cell types. DNA sequence analysis reveals that the major hypersensitive site maps to a conserved region of the JH–Cμ intron recently shown to function as a tissue-specific enhancer of heavy-chain gene expression3,4. A similar association of an enhancer-like element with a DNase I hypersensitive site has been reported for the mouse immunoglobulin light-chain Jκ–Cκ intron5–10. These results implicate disruption of local chromatin structure in the mechanism of immunoglobulin enhancer function.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- A conserved sequence in the immunoglobulin Jκ–Cκ intron: possible enhancer elementNature, 1983
- A lymphocyte-specific cellular enhancer is located downstream of the joining region in immunoglobulin heavy chain genesCell, 1983
- A tissue-specific transcription enhancer element is located in the major intron of a rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain geneCell, 1983
- Immunoglobulin gene transcription is activated by downstream sequence elementsCell, 1983
- DNase I-hypersensitive sites in the chromatin of immunoglobulin kappa light chain genes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1983
- Structure of a nuclease-sensitive region inside the immunoglobin kappa gene: evidence for a role in gene regulationNucleic Acids Research, 1983
- Chromatin changes accompany immunoglobulin κ gene activation: a potential control region within the geneNature, 1982
- Immunoglobulin heavy-chain constant-region genesCell, 1982
- Differences in the nuclease sensitivity between the two alleles of the immunoglobulin kappa light chain genes in mouse liver and myeloma nucleiNucleic Acids Research, 1982
- Isolation of immunoglobulin messenger ribonucleic acid from human lymphoblastoid cell linesBiochemistry, 1981