| First Author | Johnson K | Year | 2004 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 8 | Pages | 853-61 |
| PubMed ID | 15258579 | Mgi Jnum | J:91758 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3050710 | Doi | 10.1038/ni1099 |
| Citation | Johnson K, et al. (2004) B cell-specific loss of histone 3 lysine 9 methylation in the V(H) locus depends on Pax5. Nat Immunol 5(8):853-61 |
| abstractText | Immunoglobulin heavy chain rearrangement (V(H)-to-DJ(H)) occurs only in B cells, suggesting it is inhibited in other lineages. Here we found that in the mouse V(H) locus, methylation of lysine 9 on histone H3 (H3-K9), a mark of inactive chromatin, was present in non-B lineage cells but was absent in B cells. As others have shown that H3-K9 methylation can inhibit V(D)J recombination on engineered substrates, our data support the idea that H3-K9 methylation inhibits endogenous V(H)-to-DJ(H) recombination. We also show that Pax5, a transcription factor required for B cell commitment, is necessary and sufficient for the removal of H3-K9 methylation in the V(H) locus and provide evidence that one function of Pax5 is to remove this inhibitory modification by a mechanism of histone exchange, thus allowing B cell-specific V(H)-to-DJ(H) recombination. |
