Identification of a DNA binding protein that recognizes the nonamer recombinational signal sequence of immunoglobulin genes.

Extracts of nuclei from B- and T-lymphoid cells contain a protein that binds specifically to the conserved nonamer DNA sequence within the recombinational signals of immunoglobulin genes. Complexes with DNA fragments from four kappa light-chain joining (J) segments have the same electrophoretic mobility. Nonamer-containing DNA fragments from heavy-chain and light-chain genes compete for binding. Within the 5'-flanking DNA of the J kappa 4 gene segment, the binding site has been localized to a 27-base-pair interval spanning the nonamer region. The binding activity is recovered as a single peak after ion-exchange chromatography. The site of binding of the protein and its presence in nuclei of lymphoid cells suggest that it may function in the assembly of immunoglobulin genes.