Abstract
SITE-SPECIFIC recombination requires conserved DNA sequences specific to each system, and system-specific proteins that recognize specific DNA sequences. The site-specific recombinases seem to fall into at least two families, based on their protein structure and chemistry of strand breakage (reviewed in ref. 1). One of these is the resolvase-invertase family, members of which seem to form a serine-phosphate linkage with DNA. Members of the other family, called the integrase family, contain a conserved tyrosine residue that forms a covalent linkage with the 3'-phosphate of DNA at the site of recombination. Structural comparison of integrases shows that these proteins share a highly conserved 40-residue motif2. V-(D)-J recombination of the immunoglobulin gene requires conserved recombination signal sequences (RS) of a hep-tamer CACTGTG and a T-rich nonamer GGTTTTTGT, which are separated by a spacer sequence of either 12 or 23 bases (reviewed in refs 3 and 4). We have recently purified, almost to homogeneity, a protein that specifically binds to the immunoglobulin Jk RS containing the 23-base-pair spacer sequence5. By synthesizing probes on the basis of partial amino-acid sequences of the purified protein, we have now isolated and characterized the complementary DNA of this protein. The amino-acid sequence deduced from the cDNA sequence reveals that the Jk RS-binding protein has a sequence similar to the 40-residue motif of integrases of phages, bacteria and yeast, indicating that this protein could be involved in V-(D)-Jrecombination as a recombinase.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Craig, N. L. A. Rev. Genet. 22, 77–105 (1988).
Argos, P. et al. EMBO J. 5, 433–440 (1986).
Tonegawa, S. Nature 302, 575–581 (1983).
Honjo, T. A. Rev. Immun. 1, 499–518 (1983).
Hamaguchi, Y. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. (in the press).
Van Etten, R. A., Jackson, P. & Baltimore, D. Cell 58, 669–678 (1989).
Miller, J., McLachlan, A. D. & Klug, A. EMBO J. 4, 1609–1614 (1985).
Pabo, C. O. & Sauer, R. T. A. Rev. Biochem. 53, 293–321 (1984).
Landschulz, W. H., Johnson, P. F. & McKnight, S. L. Science 240, 1759–1764 (1988).
Parsons, R. L., Prasad, P. V., Harshey, R. M. & Jayaram, M. Molec. cell. Biol. 8, 3303–3310 (1988).
Pasad, P. V., Young, L.-J. & Jayaram, M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 2189–2193 (1987).
Pargellis, C. A., Nunes-Duby, S. E., Moitoso de Vargas, L. & Landy, A. J. biol. Chem. 263, 7678–7685 (1988).
Alt, F., Rosenberg, N., Lewis, S., Thomas, E. & Baltimore, D. Cell 27, 381–390 (1981).
Okayama, H. & Berg, P. Molec. cell. Biol. 2, 161–170 (1982).
Hanahan, D. & Meselson, M. Gene 10, 63–67 (1980).
Hattori, M. & Sakai, Y. Analyt. Biochem. 152, 232–239 (1986).
Nikaido, T. et al. Nature 311, 631–635 (1984).
Pierson III, L. S. & Kahn, M. L. J. molec. Biol. 196, 487–496 (1987).
Klemm, P. EMBO J. 5, 1389–1393 (1986).
Hall, R. M. & VocWer, C. Nucleic Acids Res. 15, 7491–7501 (1987).
Murphy, E., Huwyler, L. & de Freire Bastos, M. d-C. EMBO J. 4, 3357–3365 (1985).
Utatsu, I., Sakamoto, S., Imura, T. & Toh-E, A. J. Bact. 169, 5537–5545 (1987).
Araki, H. et al. J. molec. Biol. 182, 191–203 (1985).
Toh-e, A. & Utatsu, I. Nucleic Acids Res. 13, 4267–4283 (1985).
Chen, X. J., Saliola, M., Falcone, C., Bianchi, M. M. & Fukuhara, H. Nucleic Acids Res. 14, 4471–4481 (1986).
Hartley, J. L. & Donelson, J. E. Nature 286, 860–864 (1980).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matsunami, N., Hamaguchi, Y., Yamamoto, Y. et al. A protein binding to the Jk recombination sequence of immunoglobulin genes contains a sequence related to the integrase motif. Nature 342, 934–937 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/342934a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/342934a0
This article is cited by
-
RBPJ-dependent Notch signaling initiates the T cell program in a subset of thymus-seeding progenitors
Nature Immunology (2019)
-
Ataxin‐1 and Brother of ataxin‐1 are components of the Notch signalling pathway
EMBO reports (2011)
-
Notch signalling during peripheral T-cell activation and differentiation
Nature Reviews Immunology (2007)
-
Intracellular forms of human NOTCH1 interact at distinctly different levels with RBP-Jkappa in human B and T cells
Leukemia (2000)
-
Assignment of the human gene for KBF2/RBP-Jk to chromosome 9p12-13 and 9q13 by fluorescencein situ hybridization
Japanese Journal of Human Genetics (1997)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.