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Induction of somatic hypermutation in immunoglobulin genes is dependent on DNA polymerase iota

Ahmad Faili1, Said Aoufouchi, Eric Flatter

  • 1INSERM U373, Faculté de Médecine Necker-Enfants Malades, 156 rue de Vaugirard, 75730, Paris Cedex 15, France.

Nature
|November 1, 2002
PubMed

Somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin genes is a unique, targeted, adaptive process. While B cells are engaged in germinal centres in T-dependent responses, single base substitutions are introduced in the expressed Vh/Vl genes to allow the selection of mutants with a higher affinity for the immunizing antigen. Almost every possible DNA transaction has been proposed to explain this process, but each of these models includes an error-prone DNA synthesis step that introduces the mutations. The Y family of DNA polymerases--pol eta, pol iota, pol kappa and rev1--are specialized for copying DNA lesions and have high rates of error when copying a normal DNA template. By performing gene inactivation in a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line inducible for hypermutation, we show here that somatic hypermutation is dependent on DNA polymerase iota.

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