Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Assessing Somatic Hypermutation in Ramos B Cells after Overexpression or Knockdown of Specific Genes
08:12

Assessing Somatic Hypermutation in Ramos B Cells after Overexpression or Knockdown of Specific Genes

Published on: November 1, 2011

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase action is strongly stimulated by mutations of the THO complex

Belén Gómez-González1, Andrés Aguilera

  • 1Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Américo Vespucio s/n, 41092 Sevilla, Spain.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|May 10, 2007
PubMed

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is a B cell enzyme essential for Ig somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. AID acts on ssDNA, and switch regions of Ig genes, a target of AID, form R-loops that contain ssDNA. Nevertheless, how AID action is specifically targeted to particular DNA sequences is not clear. Because mutations altering cotranscriptional messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) formation such as those in THO/TREX in yeast promote R-loops, we investigated whether the cotranscriptional assembly of mRNPs could affect AID targeting. Here we show that AID action is transcription-dependent in yeast and that strong and transcription-dependent hypermutation and hyperrecombination are induced by AID if cells are deprived of THO. In these strains AID-induced mutations occurred preferentially at WRC motifs in the nontranscribed DNA strand. We propose that a suboptimal cotranscriptional mRNP assembly at particular DNA regions could play an important role in Ig diversification and genome dynamics.

More Related Videos

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions06:48

CD Spectroscopy to Study DNA-Protein Interactions

Published on: February 10, 2022

The Lambda Select cII Mutation Detection System07:08

The Lambda Select cII Mutation Detection System

Published on: April 26, 2018

Related Concept Videos

Allosteric Proteins-ATCase01:19

Allosteric Proteins-ATCase

Binding sites linkages can regulate a protein's function.  For example, enzyme activity is often regulated through a feedback mechanism where the end product of the biochemical process serves as an inhibitor.
Aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the condensation of L-aspartate and carbamoyl phosphate to  N-carbamoyl-L-aspartate. This reaction is the first step in pyrimidine biosynthesis. UTP and CTP, the end products of the pyrimidine synthesis pathway,...
Anaphase Promoting Complex00:50

Anaphase Promoting Complex

The stepwise destruction of specific proteins is necessary for the progression and completion of the cell cycle. Such proteins are ubiquitinated by ubiquitin ligases and then subsequently destroyed by the proteasome. The SCF (Skp1/Cullin/F-box) and the anaphase-promoting complex (APC) are two important ubiquitin ligases involved in cell cycle progression. While SCF is active throughout the cell cycle, APC gets activated during metaphase to anaphase transition. Cdc20 or Cdh1 binds to APC and...
Spontaneous and Induced Mutations01:30

Spontaneous and Induced Mutations

Spontaneous mutations arise infrequently during DNA replication due to errors in the process. A key factor behind these errors is tautomeric shifts in nitrogenous bases, where bases transition from keto to enol forms or amino to imino forms. This shift can alter base-pairing rules, leading to mutations. Additionally, reactive oxygen species (ROS) arising from aerobic metabolism can damage DNA, resulting in depurination (loss of a purine base) or depyrimidination (loss of a pyrimidine base).
Electron Transport Chain: Complex I and II01:46

Electron Transport Chain: Complex I and II

The mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) is the main energy generation system in the eukaryotic cells. However, mitochondria also produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to the large electron flow during oxidative phosphorylation. While Complex I is one of the primary sources of superoxide radicals, ROS production by Complex II is uncommon and may only be observed in cancer cells with mutated complexes.
ROS generation is regulated and maintained at moderate levels necessary...
DNA Damage can Stall the Cell Cycle02:36

DNA Damage can Stall the Cell Cycle

In response to DNA damage, cells can pause the cell cycle to assess and repair the breaks. However, the cell must check the DNA at certain critical stages during the cell cycle. If the cell cycle pauses before DNA replication, the cells will contain twice the amount of DNA. On the other hand, if cells arrest after DNA replication but before mitosis, they will contain four times the normal amount of DNA. With a host of specialized proteins at their disposal,cells must use the right protein at...
DNA Damage Can Stall the Cell Cycle02:36

DNA Damage Can Stall the Cell Cycle

In response to DNA damage, cells can pause the cell cycle to assess and repair the breaks. However, the cell must check the DNA at certain critical stages during the cell cycle. If the cell cycle pauses before DNA replication, the cells will contain twice the amount of DNA. On the other hand, if cells arrest after DNA replication but before mitosis, they will contain four times the normal amount of DNA. With a host of specialized proteins at their disposal,cells must use the right protein at...