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Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Program in Immunology and Virology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA 01655; and
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago IL 60612
Ab class switching is induced upon B cell activation in vivo by
immunization or infection or in vitro by treatment with mitogens, e.g.
LPS, and results in the expression of different heavy chain constant
region (CH) genes without a change in the Ab variable
region. This DNA recombination event allows Abs to alter their
biological activity while maintaining their antigenic specificity.
Little is known about the molecular mechanism of switch recombination.
To attempt to develop an assay for enzymes, DNA binding proteins, and
DNA sequences that mediate switch recombination, we have constructed a
plasmid DNA substrate that will undergo switch recombination upon
stable transfection into the surface IgM+ B cell line
(I.29µ), a cell line capable of undergoing switch recombination of
its endogenous genes. We demonstrate that recombination occurs between
the two switch regions of the plasmid, as assayed by PCRs across the
integrated plasmid switch regions, followed by Southern blot
hybridization. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the PCR products
confirmed the occurrence of Sµ-S
recombination in the plasmid.
Recombination of the plasmid in I.29µ cells does not require
treatment with inducers of switch recombination, suggesting that
recombinase activity is constitutive in I.29µ cells. Recombination
does not require high levels of transcription across the switch regions
of the plasmid. Fewer recombination events are detected in four
different B and T cell lines that do not undergo switch recombination
of their endogenous genes.
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