Abstract
Oct-2 and OBF-1 (also called OCA-B or Bob-1) are B cell–specific transcription factors that bind to the conserved octamer site of immunoglobulin promoters, yet their role in immunoglobulin transcription has remained unclear. We generated mice in which the lymphoid compartment was reconstituted with cells that lack both Oct-2 and OBF-1. Even in the absence of these two transcription factors, B cells develop normally to the membrane immunoglobulin M–positive (IgM+) stage and immunoglobulin gene transcription is essentially unaffected. These observations imply that the ubiquitous factor Oct-1 plays a previously unrecognized role in the control of immunoglobulin gene transcription and suggest the existence of another, as yet unidentified, cofactor. In addition, both factors are essential for germinal center formation, although OBF-1 is more important than Oct-2 for IgG production after immunization.
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Change history
10 August 2006
In the version of this article initially published, the Oct-2-/- plot in the second row of Figure 1a is incorrect. The correct plot is provided. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.
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Acknowledgements
We thank lab members and S. Junker (Aarhus) for discussions, B. Bartholdy for help with the figures and Y. Nagamine for critical reading of the manuscript. The Basel Institute for Immunology was founded and is supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland.
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Schubart, K., Massa, S., Schubart, D. et al. B cell development and immunoglobulin gene transcription in the absence of Oct-2 and OBF-1. Nat Immunol 2, 69–74 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/83190
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/83190
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