Bidirectional Activity of the NWC Promoter is Responsible for RAG-2 Transcription in Non-lymphoid Cells

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2012 Sep 18

PMID 22984564

Citations 10

Authors

Agnieszka Laszkiewicz

Lukasz Sniezewski

Monika Kasztura

Lukasz Bzdzion

Malgorzata Cebrat

Pawel Kisielow

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The recombination-activating genes (RAG-1 and RAG-2) encode a V(D)J recombinase responsible for rearrangements of antigen-receptor genes during T and B cell development, and RAG expression is known to correlate strictly with the process of rearrangement. In contrast to RAG-1, the expression of RAG-2 was not previously detected during any other stage of lymphopoiesis or in any other normal tissue. Here we report that the CpG island-associated promoter of the NWC gene (the third evolutionarily conserved gene in the RAG locus), which is located in the second intron of RAG-2, has bidirectional activity and is responsible for the detectable transcription of RAG-2 in some non-lymphoid tissues. We also identify evolutionarily conserved promoter fragments responsible for this bidirectional activity, and show that it is activated by transcription factor ZFP143. The possible implications of our findings are briefly discussed.

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