DEFECTIVE V-TO-J RECOMBINATION OF T-CELL RECEPTOR GAMMA-CHAIN GENES IN SCID MICE

The status of T cell receptor γ chain genes (TcR γ) in 11 spontaneous T cell lymphomas from mice with severe combined immune deficiency (scid) was analyzed. We found that as a result of large abnormal deletions accompanying attempted site‐specific V‐to‐J recombinations, 36 of 47 rearranged TcR γ genes lacked the variable (V) and/or joining (J) region gene segment involved in this attempted recombination. No such deletions were found in T cell lymphomas from normal mice. We interpret our data as indicating a defective V‐to‐J recombination in scid lymphocytes consistent with our earlier observation of faulty D‐to‐J recombination in transformed scid lymphocytes (Schuler et al., Cell 1986. 46: 963). The present results further support the hypothesis that the scid mutation affects a component of the VDJ‐recombinase system used in common by B and T cells to assemble antigen receptor genes. Copyright © 1990 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim