Constitutive Lymphoid Expression of the Nuclear Form of RNase H1 Is Associated with a Developmental Bottleneck at the Pro-B Cell Stage of B Cell Differentiation.

Abstract 4702

The development of B lymphocytes and the process of lineage determination are initiated by expression of a set of transcriptional regulators leading to V(D)J recombination events initiated by double-strand DNA breaks. Subsequently, these recombinations form DNAs that permit transcription of immunoglobulin genes and translation of the corresponding mRNAs, first by joining the V(D)J DNA sequences, then by recombination, that generates various isotypes of immunoglobulins by class-switch recombination (CSR). Formation of R-loops, regions containing RNA/DNA hybrid and a displaced single-stranded DNA, have been shown to lead to recombination in bacteria, yeast, HeLa and chick cells. Expression in each of these cases of excess ribonuclease H1 (RNase H1), a class of enzymes that degrade RNA in RNA/DNA hybrids, has ameliorated the deleterious effects and decreased recombinational events associated with R-loop formation. R-loops have been observed following transcription of the switch regions that occurs during CSR. The possibility that R-loops are important in V(D)J recombination has not been addressed, and whether ribonucleases H (RNases H) play a role in this process is still uncertain. Transgenic (TG) mice that overexpress RNase H1 in B and T cells (M27F7) were employed in this study. FACS analysis of hematopoietic cells from TG mice revealed a decrease in pre-B cells in the bone marrow. The data indicate a block at the pro-B to pre-B stage of B cell development, which may be the result of apoptosis due to the failure to generate a productive VH-D-JH rearrangement and expression of the pre-B cell receptor. A few B cells that successfully passed these checkpoints predominately differentiated into marginal zone and B1a cells in the peripheral lymphoid organs of the TG mice. These data suggest that R-loops are important in H chain gene rearrangement.

This research is supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.