We have ablated the cellular RNA degradation machinery in differentiated B cells and pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells by conditional mutagenesis of core (Exosc3) and nuclear RNase (Exosc10) components of RNA exosome and identified a vast number of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) with emergent functionality. Unexpectedly, eRNA-expressing regions accumulate R-loop structures upon RNA exosome ablation, thus demonstrating the role of RNA exosome in resolving deleterious DNA/RNA hybrids arising from active enhancers. We have uncovered a distal divergent eRNA-expressing element (lncRNA-CSR) engaged in long-range DNA interactions and regulating IgH 3′ regulatory region super-enhancer function. CRISPR-Cas9 mediated ablation of lncRNA-CSR transcription decreases its chromosomal looping-mediated association with the IgH 3′regulatory region super-enhancer and leads to decreased class switch recombination efficiency. We propose that the RNA exosome protects divergently transcribed lncRNA expressing enhancers, by resolving deleterious transcription-coupled secondary DNA structures, while also regulating long-range super-enhancer chromosomal interactions important for cellular function.

The transcription factor Batf controls TH17 differentiation by regulating the expression of both RORγt and RORγt target genes such as Il17. Here, we report the mechanism by which Batf controls in vivo class switch recombination (CSR). In T cells, Batf directly controls expression of the transcription factors Bcl-6 and c-Maf, both of which are needed for development of T follicular helper (TFH) cells. Restoring TFH activity to Batf−/− T cells in vivo requires co-expression of both Bcl-6 and c-Maf. In B cells, Batf directly controls the expression of both activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) and of IH-CH germline transcripts. Thus, Batf functions at multiple hierarchical levels across two cell types to globally regulate in vivo switched antibody responses.

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Antibodies, which are produced by B-lineage cells, consist of immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light (IgL) chains that have amino-terminal variable regions and carboxy-terminal constant regions. In response to antigens, B cells undergo two types of genomic alterations to increase antibody diversity. Affinity for antigen can be increased by introduction of point mutations into IgH and IgL variable regions by somatic hypermutation. In addition, antibody effector functions can be altered by changing the expressed IgH constant region exons through IgH class switch recombination (CSR). Somatic hypermutation and CSR both require the B-cell-specific activation-induced cytidine deaminase protein (AID), which initiates these reactions through its single-stranded (ss)DNA-specific cytidine deaminase activity. In biochemical assays, replication protein A (RPA), a ssDNA-binding protein, associates with phosphorylated AID from activated B cells and enhances AID activity on transcribed double-stranded (ds)DNA containing somatic hypermutation or CSR target sequences. This AID-RPA association, which requires phosphorylation, may provide a mechanism for allowing AID to access dsDNA targets in activated B cells. Here we show that AID from B cells is phosphorylated on a consensus protein kinase A (PKA) site and that PKA is the physiological AID kinase. Thus, AID from non-lymphoid cells can be functionally phosphorylated by recombinant PKA to allow interaction with RPA and promote deamination of transcribed dsDNA substrates. Moreover, mutation of the major PKA phosphorylation site of AID preserves ssDNA deamination activity, but markedly reduces RPA-dependent dsDNA deamination activity and severely impairs the ability of AID to effect CSR in vivo. We conclude that PKA has a critical role in post-translational regulation of AID activity in B cells.

SUMMARY Activation Induced cytidine Deaminase (AID) initiates Immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain (IgH) class switch recombination (CSR) and Ig variable region somatic hypermutation (SHM) in B lymphocytes by deaminating cytidines on template and non-template strands of transcribed DNA substrates. However, the mechanism of AID access to the template DNA strand, particularly when hybridized to a nascent RNA transcript, has been an enigma. We now implicate the RNA exosome, a cellular RNA processing/degradation complex, in targeting AID to both DNA strands. In B-lineage cells activated for CSR, the RNA exosome associates with AID, accumulates on IgH switch regions in an AID-dependent fashion, and is required for optimal CSR. Moreover, both the cellular RNA exosome complex and a recombinant RNA exosome core complex impart robust AID- and transcription-dependent DNA deamination of both strands of transcribed SHM substrates in vitro. Our findings reveal a role for non-coding RNA surveillance machinery in generating antibody diversity.

The vast majority of the mammalian genome has the potential to expressnoncoding RNA (ncRNA). The 11-subunit RNA exosome complex is the main source of cellular 3′–5′ exoribonucleolytic activity and potentially regulates the mammalian noncoding transcriptome1. Here we generated a mouse model in which the essential subunit Exosc3 of the RNA exosome complex can be conditionally deleted. Exosc3-deficient B cells lack the ability to undergo normal levels of class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation, two mutagenic DNA processes used to generate antibody diversity via the B-cell mutator protein activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)2,3. The transcriptome of Exosc3-deficient B cells has revealed the presence of many novel RNA exosome substrate ncRNAs. RNA exosome substrate RNAs include xTSS-RNAs, transcription start site (TSS)-associated antisense transcripts that can exceed 500 base pairs in length and are transcribed divergently from cognate coding gene transcripts. xTSS-RNAs are most strongly expressed at genes that accumulate AID-mediated somatic mutations and/or are frequent translocation partners of DNA double-strand breaks generated at Igh in B cells4,5. Strikingly, translocations near TSSs or within gene bodies occur over regions of RNA exosome substrate ncRNA expression. These RNA exosome-regulated, antisense-transcribed regions of the B-cell genome recruit AID and accumulate single-strand DNA structures containing RNA–DNA hybrids. We propose that RNA exosome regulation of ncRNA recruits AID to single-strand DNA-forming sites of antisense and divergent transcription in the B-cell genome, thereby creating a link between ncRNA transcription and overall maintenance of B-cell genomic integrity.

As B cells engage in the immune response they express the deaminase AID to initiate the hypermutation and recombination of immunoglobulin genes, which are crucial processes for the efficient recognition and disposal of pathogens, However, AID must be tightly controlled in B cells to minimize off-targeting mutations, which can drive chromosomal translocations and the development of B cell malignancies, such as lymphomas. Recent genomic and biochemical analyses have begun to unravel the crucial question of how AID-mediated deamination is targeted outside immunoglobulin genes. Here, we discuss the transcriptional and topological features that are emerging as key drivers of AID promiscuous activity.

Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 6 (eIF6), a monomeric protein of about 26 kDa, can bind to the 60S ribosomal subunit and prevent its association with the 40S ribosomal subunit. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, eIF6 is encoded by a single-copy essential gene. To understand the function of eIF6 in yeast cells, we constructed a conditional mutant haploid yeast strain in which a functional but a rapidly degradable form of eIF6 fusion protein was synthesized from a repressible GAL10 promoter. Depletion of eIF6 from yeast cells resulted in a selective reduction in the level of 60S ribosomal subunits, causing a stoichiometric imbalance in 60S-to-40S subunit ratio and inhibition of the rate of in vivo protein synthesis. Further analysis indicated that eIF6 is not required for the stability of 60S ribosomal subunits. Rather, eIF6-depleted cells showed defective pre-rRNA processing, resulting in accumulation of 35S pre-rRNA precursor, formation of a 23S aberrant pre-rRNA, decreased 20S pre-rRNA levels, and accumulation of 27SB pre-rRNA. The defect in the processing of 27S prerRNA resulted in the reduced formation of mature 25S and 5.8S rRNAs relative to 18S rRNA, which may account for the selective deficit of 60S ribosomal subunits in these cells. Cell fractionation as well as indirect immunofluorescence studies showed that c-Myc or hemagglutinin epitope-tagged eIF6 was distributed throughout the cytoplasm and the nuclei of yeast cells.Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 6 (eIF6), a monomeric protein of about 26 kDa, was originally isolated and characterized from both wheat germ (22, 23) and mammalian cell extracts (17, 34) based on an in vitro assay that measured the ability of the protein to bind specifically to the 60S ribosomal subunit and to prevent its association with the 40S ribosomal subunit to form 80S ribosomes. Because of this ribosomal subunit antiassociation property, eIF6 was thought to play a direct role in the provision of free ribosomal subunits required for initiation of protein synthesis. The protein was therefore classified as a eukaryotic translation initiation factor (13), although its role in translation of mRNAs was not defined in these original studies. More recently, to facilitate further characterization of eIF6 and to understand the function of this protein in translation, we cloned and then expressed in Escherichia coli both a human cDNA (28) and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene (29) encoding functionally active eIF6, each of 245 amino acids (calculated M r , 26,558 for human eIF6 and 25,550 for yeast eIF6). The two proteins are 72% identical. Detailed characterization of the yeast gene encoding eIF6, designated TIF6, showed that TIF6 is a single-copy gene that maps on chromosome XVI (as YPR016C) and is essential for cell growth and viability. These properties of TIF6 were used to construct a conditional null allele by placing its expression under the control of the regulated GAL10 promoter (29). We observed that depletion of eIF6 from this yeast strain resulted in inhibition...