| First Author | Lu R | Year | 2003 |
| Journal | Genes Dev | Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 14 | Pages | 1703-8 |
| PubMed ID | 12832394 | Mgi Jnum | J:84577 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2668304 | Doi | 10.1101/gad.1104803 |
| Citation | Lu R, et al. (2003) IRF-4,8 orchestrate the pre-B-to-B transition in lymphocyte development. Genes Dev 17(14):1703-8 |
| abstractText | B-lymphocyte development involves sequential DNA rearrangements of immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy (mu) and light (kappa, lambda) chain loci and is dependent on transient expression of mu containing pre-antigen receptor complexes (pre-BCR). To date, genetic analysis has not identified transcription factors that coordinate the pre-B-to-B transition. We demonstrate that the related interferon regulatory factors IRF-4 (Pip) and IRF-8 (ICSBP) are required for Ig light but not heavy-chain gene rearrangement. In the absence of these transcription factors, B-cell development is arrested at the cycling pre-B-cell stage and the mutant cells fail to down-regulate the pre-BCR. On the basis of molecular analysis, we propose that IRF-4,8 function as a genetic switch to down-regulate surrogate light-chain gene expression and induce conventional light-chain gene transcription and rearrangement. |
