TEA regulates local TCR‐Jα accessibility through histone acetylation

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Enhancer α-dependent histone acetylation has been proposed as a molecular mechanism underlying the control of accessibility of recombination signal sequences along the TCRα locus. Herewe show that chromatin acetylation along the first Jα segments is under the dependence of the T early α element (TEA), located upstream of TCRJα locus. The targeted deletion of TEA leads to an absence of histones H3 and H4 tail acetylation, while maintaining histone acetylation in the region spanning downstream Jα segments. During thymocyte maturation, TEA-dependent histone acetylation appears at immature single-positive stage, known to represent the stage of VαJα initiation. TEA-dependent histone acetylation of the most upstream Jα segments leads to enhancedDNA accessibility thus optimizing TCRJα usage and increasing Ag receptor diversity potential.