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Octamer transcription factors and the cell type‐specificity of immunoglobulin gene expression
Author(s) -
Kemler Iris,
Schaffner Walter
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.4.5.2407588
Subject(s) - histone octamer , enhancer , gene , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription factor , gene expression , antibody , immunoglobulin gene , genetics , histone , nucleosome
Antibodies are produced exclusively in B lymphocytes. The expression of the antibody‐encoding genes, the immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, is also restricted to B cells. The octamer sequence ATGCAAAT is present in the promoter and the enhancer of Ig genes, and plays an important role in its tissue‐specific expression. This sequence motif is a binding site for nuclear proteins, the so‐called octamer transcription factors (Oct or OTF factors). The Oct‐1 protein is present in all cell types analyzed so far, whereas Oct‐2A and Oct‐2B are found mainly in B lymphocytes. All three proteins show the same sequence specificity and binding affinity. It appears that the B cell‐specific expression of Ig genes is mediated at least in part by cell type‐specific Oct factors, and that there are both quantitative and qualitative differences between Oct‐1 and Oct‐2 factors. Recently, a number of other octamer factor variants were identified. Many of these may be created by alternative splicing of a primary transcript of one Oct factor gene and may serve a specific function in the fine tuning of gene expression.— K emler , I.; S chaffner , W. Octamer transcription factors and the cell‐type specificity of immunoglobulin gene expression. FASEB J. 4: 1444‐1449; 1990.