A pre‐B‐ and B cell‐specific DNA‐binding protein, EBB‐1, which binds to the promoter of the VpreB1 gene

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Abstract
The VpreB1 protein is thought to be expressed on the surface of pre-B cells in association with λ5 and μ, heavy chain, and to play an important role on B cell differentiation. The expression of VpreB1 and λ5 is pre-B cell specific, and regulated at the initiation of transcription. We have identified at least two sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins which bind to the region −191 to -74 of the promoter of the mouse VpreB1 gene. These DNA-binding proteins also bind to the promoter of the mouse λ5 gene. One of the two DNA-binding proteins, called EBB-1, is restricted to pre-B and B cells, but not detected in plasma cells, T cells and cells of other lineages. Transient transfection analysis of reporter constructs revealed that the binding sites of these proteins play a significant role in the activity of the promoter, especially the binding site of EBB-1. Taken together these results suggest that EBB-1 might be one of the crucial factors which regulates a series of intracellular events in B cell differentiation.