Biopolymers and cell. 2009; 25 (1): 12 - 26

Recombination in immunoglobulin gene loci

V. A. Halytskiy, S. V. Komisarenko

Palladin Institute of Biochemistry of the NAS of Ukraine, 9 Leontovicha Str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 01601

Gene network of the lymphoid cell differentiation coordinates precisely the recombination process in immunoglobulin gene loci. In our opinion, cellular microRNAs can contribute to the allelic exclusion through microRNA-directed DNA methylation and participate in retargeting recombinases activity from the gene loci of heavy immunoglobulin chains to the gene loci of light chains.

Keywords: immunoglobulin gene locus, recombination, microRNA, allelic exclusion.