Publication Date:
1990-06-22
Description:
The vast repertoire of immunoglobulins and T cell receptors is generated, in part, by V(D)J recombination, a series of genomic rearrangements that occur specifically in developing lymphocytes. The recombination activating gene, RAG-1, which is a gene expressed exclusively in maturing lymphoid cells, was previously isolated. RAG-1 inefficiently induced V(D)J recombinase activity when transfected into fibroblasts, but cotransfection with an adjacent gene, RAG-2, has resulted in at least a 1000-fold increase in the frequency of recombination. The 2.1-kilobase RAG-2 complementary DNA encodes a putative protein of 527 amino acids whose sequence is unrelated to that of RAG-1. Like RAG-1, RAG-2 is conserved between species that carry out V(D)J recombination, and its expression pattern correlates precisely with that of V(D)J recombinase activity. In addition to being located just 8 kilobases apart, these convergently transcribed genes are unusual in that most, if not all, of their coding and 3' untranslated sequences are contained in single exons. RAG-1 and RAG-2 might activate the expression of the V(D)J recombinase but, more likely, they directly participate in the recombination reaction.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Oettinger, M A -- Schatz, D G -- Gorka, C -- Baltimore, D -- GM39458/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1990 Jun 22;248(4962):1517-23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2360047" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Animals
;
Base Sequence
;
Biological Evolution
;
Cattle
;
Cell Line
;
Chickens
;
Cricetinae
;
DNA/*genetics
;
DNA Nucleotidyltransferases/*genetics
;
*DNA-Binding Proteins
;
Dogs
;
Female
;
*Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte
;
*Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte
;
*Homeodomain Proteins
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Mice
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
*Multigene Family
;
Nuclear Proteins
;
Nucleic Acid Hybridization
;
Opossums
;
Proteins/*genetics
;
Rabbits
;
Recombination, Genetic/*genetics
;
Restriction Mapping
;
Transfection
;
Turtles
;
VDJ Recombinases
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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