Bcl6 Is Required for Somatic Hypermutation and Gene Conversion in Chicken DT40 Cells.

ABSTRACT: The activation induced cytosine deaminase (AID) mediates diversification of B cell immunoglobulin genes by the three distinct yet related processes of somatic hypermutation (SHM), class switch recombination (CSR), and gene conversion (GCV). SHM occurs in germinal center B cells, and the transcription factor Bcl6 is a key regulator of the germinal center B cell gene expression program, including expression of AID. To test the hypothesis that Bcl6 function is important for the process of SHM, we compared WT chicken DT40 B cells, which constitutively perform SHM/GCV, to their Bcl6-deficient counterparts. We found that Bcl6-deficient DT40 cells were unable to perform SHM and GCV despite enforced high level expression of AID and substantial levels of AID in the nucleus of the cells. To gain mec

SUBMITTER: Williams AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4762950 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature