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Molecular biology

Case of mistaken identity

Nature volume 428, pages 29–31 (2004)Cite this article

An enzyme involved at grass-roots level in assembling genes for receptors that are essential in fighting infection has now been fingered as a suspect in certain cancers — proof that mistakes can be costly.

White blood cells called B and T lymphocytes play an important part in ensuring the integrity of the human immune system. The surfaces of these cells are home to a huge diversity of receptors, which recognize the foreign bodies that spark off our defences. The genes that generate these antigen receptors arise from a specialized form of DNA recombination known as V(D)J recombination. During this process, double-stranded DNA breaks are introduced at the variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) segments of the antigen-receptor gene loci by the RAG protein complex, and the cut segments are then joined together by general DNA repair proteins.

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Figure 1: Aberrant V(D)J recombination and translocation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Children's Hospital and Department of Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, and the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Craig H. Bassing & Frederick W. Alt

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  1. Craig H. Bassing
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  2. Frederick W. Alt
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Bassing, C., Alt, F. Case of mistaken identity. Nature 428, 29–31 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428029a

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