Somatic recombination
Somatic recombination, as opposed to the genetic recombination that occurs in meiosis, is an alteration of the DNA of a somatic cell that is inherited by its daughter cells. The term is usually reserved for large-scale alterations of DNA such as chromosomal translocations and deletions and not applied to point mutations. Somatic recombination occurs physiologically in the assembly of the B cell receptor and T-cell receptor genes (V(D)J recombination),[1] as well as in the class switching of immunoglobulins.[2] Somatic recombination is also important in the process of carcinogenesis.[3]
In neurons of the human brain, somatic recombination occurs in the gene that encodes the amyloid precursor protein APP.[4] Neurons from individuals with sporadic Alzheimer's disease show greater APP gene diversity due to somatic recombination than neurons from healthy individuals.[4]
References
- ^ Gellert M (1992) Molecular analysis of V(D)J recombination. Annu Rev Genet 26:425–46. PMID 1482120
- ^ Hein K, Lorenz MG, Siebenkotten G, et al. (1998) Processing of switch transcripts is required for targeting of antibody class switch recombination. J Exp Med 188:2369–74. PMID 9858523
- ^ Ramel C, Cederberg H, Magnusson J, et al. (1996) Somatic recombination, gene amplification and cancer. Mutat Res 353:85–107. PMID 8692194
- ^ a b Lee MH, Siddoway B, Kaeser GE, Segota I, Rivera R, Romanow WJ, Liu CS, Park C, Kennedy G, Long T, Chun J (November 2018). "Somatic APP gene recombination in Alzheimer's disease and normal neurons". Nature. 563 (7733): 639–645. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0718-6. PMID 30464338.
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