3jbx

Structural highlights

Function

[RAG1_DANRE] Catalytic component of the RAG complex, a multiprotein complex that mediates the DNA cleavage phase during V(D)J recombination. V(D)J recombination assembles a diverse repertoire of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes in developing B and T lymphocytes through rearrangement of different V (variable), in some cases D (diversity), and J (joining) gene segments. In the RAG complex, RAG1 mediates the DNA-binding to the conserved recombination signal sequences (RSS) and catalyzes the DNA cleavage activities by introducing a double-strand break between the RSS and the adjacent coding segment. RAG2 is not a catalytic component but is required for all known catalytic activities. DNA cleavage occurs in 2 steps: a first nick is introduced in the top strand immediately upstream of the heptamer, generating a 3'-hydroxyl group that can attack the phosphodiester bond on the opposite strand in a direct transesterification reaction, thereby creating 4 DNA ends: 2 hairpin coding ends and 2 blunt, 5'-phosphorylated ends. In addition to its endonuclease activity, RAG1 also acts as a E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase that mediates monoubiquitination of histone H3. Histone H3 monoubiquitination is required for the joining step of V(D)J recombination (By similarity).

See Also

• Recombination-activating gene 3D structures

References

1. ↑ Ru H, Chambers MG, Fu TM, Tong AB, Liao M, Wu H. Molecular Mechanism of V(D)J Recombination from Synaptic RAG1-RAG2 Complex Structures. Cell. 2015 Nov 19;163(5):1138-52. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.10.055. Epub 2015 Nov , 5. PMID:26548953 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.10.055