Ma. Landree et al., Mutational analysis of RAG1 and RAG2 identifies three catalytic amino acids in RAG1 critical for both cleavage steps of V(D)J recombination, GENE DEV, 13(23), 1999, pp. 3059-3069
RAG1 and RAG2 initiate V(D)J recombination, the process of rearranging the
antigen-binding domain of immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors, by introduc
ing site-specific double-strand breaks (DSB) in chromosomal DNA during lymp
hocyte development. These breaks are generated in two steps, nicking of one
strand (hydrolysis), followed by hairpin formation (transesterification).
The nature and location of the RAG active site(s) have remained unknown. Be
cause acidic amino acids have a critical role in catalyzing DNA cleavage by
nucleases and recombinases that require divalent metal ions as cofactors,
we hypothesized that acidic active site residues are likewise essential for
RAG-mediated DNA cleavage. We altered each conserved acidic amino acid in
RAG1 and RAG2 by site-directed mutagenesis, and examined >100 mutants using
a combination of in vivo and in vitro analyses. No conserved acidic amino
acids in RAG2 were critical for catalysis; three RAG1 mutants retained norm
al DNA binding, but were catalytically inactive for both nicking and hairpi
n formation. These data argue that one active site in RAG1 performs both st
eps of the cleavage reaction. Amino acid substitution experiments that chan
ged the metal ion specificity suggest that at least one of these three resi
dues contacts the metal ion(s) directly. These data suggest that RAG-mediat
ed DNA cleavage involves coordination of divalent metal ion(s) by RAG1.