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Review
. 2006 May;82(3):104-20.
doi: 10.2183/pjab.82.104.

AID to overcome the limitations of genomic information by introducing somatic DNA alterations

Tasuku Honjo  1 , Masamichi Muramatsu  1 , Hitoshi Nagaoka  1 , Kazuo Kinoshita  1 , Reiko Shinkura  1
Affiliations
Review

AID to overcome the limitations of genomic information by introducing somatic DNA alterations

Tasuku Honjo et al. Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2006 May.

Abstract

The immune system has adopted somatic DNA alterations to overcome the limitations of the genomic information. Activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is an essential enzyme to regulate class switch recombination (CSR), somatic hypermutation (SHM) and gene conversion (GC) of the immunoglobulin gene. AID is known to be required for DNA cleavage of S regions in CSR and V regions in SHM. However, its molecular mechanism is a focus of extensive debate. RNA editing hypothesis postulates that AID edits yet unknown mRNA, to generate specific endonucleases for CSR and SHM. By contrast, DNA deamination hypothesis assumes that AID deaminates cytosine in DNA, followed by DNA cleavage by base excision repair enzymes. We summarize the basic knowledge for molecular mechanisms for CSR and SHM and then discuss the importance of AID not only in the immune regulation but also in the genome instability.

Keywords: Activation induced cytidine deaminase; DNA deamination; RNA editing; class switch recombination; genome instability; somatic hypermutation.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Schematic representation of RNA editing and DNA deamination models DNA cleavage mechanisms by the two models are schematically represented. Repair phase is believed to be the same, except that SHM can be introduced by replication according to DNA deamination model.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Pathogen induced DNA alterations by AID.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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