TRANSLATABLE IMMUNOGLOBULIN GERM-LINE TRANSCRIPT

During B cell differentiation, the functional genes encoding immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy (H) and light (L) chains are generated by two rearrangement processes - VDJ rearrangement generates the exon encoding the Ig variable (V) regions, and the class switch reconstructs a rearranged Ig H gene by exchanging the segment encoding the constant (C) region, which determines the Ig class. Both types of rearrangement are preceded by transcripts originating from a transcriptional start site 5′ of the I exon, which is then spliced to the C exons. These germ-line transcripts, which are thought to be necessary for the initiation of both types of rearrangement, are said to be sterile. We demonstrate here that the μ germ-line transcript is translatable into a polypeptide chain, to which we assign the symbol ψ. Thus, protein products of these transcripts might be part of or signal to the recombinases that catalyze Ig gene rearrangement.