Biopolym. Cell. 2016; 32(3):179-183.
Structure and Function of Biopolymers
Intranuclear localization of transcription factories and immunoglobulin heavy chain gene alleles during human B-cell maturation
1, 2, 3Pichugin A. V., 1, 2, 4Iarovaia O. V., 1, 2, 4Sklyar I. V., 5Lacombe G., 2, 4, 5Razin S. V., 5Fest T., 1, 2Lipinski M., 1, 2Vassetzky Y. S.
  1. CNRS UMR 8126, Universit Paris-Sud 11, Institut Gustave Roussy
    114, rue Edouard Vaillant, Villejuif, France, 94805
  2. LIA 1066 French-Russian Joint Cancer Research Laboratory
    Villejuif, France–Moscow, Russian Federation
  3. Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University
    29, Polytechnicheskaya Str, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 195251
  4. Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences
    34/5, Vavilova Str., Moscow, Russian Federation, 119334
  5. INSERM U917, Université de Rennes
    2, avenue du Professeur Léon Bernard, F - 35043 Rennes, France
  6. Faculty of Biology, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
    Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russian Federation, 119991
Immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) gene locus is expressed monoallelically in human B cells. Aim. To study the role of nuclear organization in regulation of the IGH expression during B-cell differentiation. Methods. Immunofluorescence in situ hybridization on 3D-preserved nuclei (3D immuno-FISH). Results. Active RNA polymerase II (Pol II) molecules and the IGH locus were detected in the periphery of the nucleoli at some stages of B-cell differentiation. Conclusions. We observed significant changes in the pattern of distribution of RNA polymerase II in the nucleus during B-cell differentiation, but no preferential co-localization of the productive IGH allele with the transcription factories in the vicinity of the nucleolus and in the nucleoplasm was observed.
Keywords: Immunoglobulin heavy chain gene, transcription, nucleolus, B-cell maturation