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. 1991 Oct 11;19(19):5339–5344. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.19.5339

Demonstration of a divergent transcript from the bidirectional heavy chain immunoglobulin promoter VH441 in B-cells.

Q T Nguyen 1, N Doyen 1, M F d'Andon 1, F Rougeon 1
PMCID: PMC328896  PMID: 1923817

Abstract

The mouse heavy chain immunoglobulin promoter VH441 can lead in vitro to bidirectional transcription, due to a symmetrical organization of immunoglobulin heavy chain promoters with two TATA-like sequences bracketing the upstream promoter element ATGCAAAT (the so called octamer). We demonstrate here that divergent transcription also occurs in vivo in mature B cells from a myeloma which expresses the VH441 gene and even from the spleen of BALB/c mice. The level of VH441 divergent transcript increases in the spleen of BALB/c mice after immunisation by beta-(1,6)-galactan, showing that it is expressed in B cells which actively transcribe the VH441 gene. The divergent transcript has been characterized: its major transcription start site was mapped within 33 base pairs from the divergent TATA-like region, it is unspliced and not polyadenylated. In the light of these results, the functions of the divergent transcript and the bidirectional promoter are discussed.

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