Elements regulating somatic hypermutation of an immunoglobulin kappa gene: critical role for the intron enhancer/matrix attachment region

Analysis of the immunoglobulin kappa gene reveals that multiple elements are responsible for full hypermutation. Removal of a few elements significantly affects but does not abolish the process. The experiments using transgenic mice reveal that substitution of the V-kappa promoter by a beta-globin promoter does not suppress hypermutation. This suggests the absence of specific signals in the V-Kappa promoter.