IDENTIFICATION OF A MATRIX-ASSOCIATED REGION 5' OF AN IMMUNOGLOBULIN HEAVY-CHAIN VARIABLE REGION GENE

In the accompanying report (C. F. Webb, C. Das, S. Eaton, K. Calame, and P. Tucker, Mol. Cell. Biol. 11:5197-5205, 1991), we characterize B-cell-specific protein-DNA interactions at -500 and -200 bp upstream of the mu-immunoglobulin heavy chain promoter whose abundances were increased by interleukin-5 plus antigen. Because of the high A + T/G + C ratio of these sequences and the consistent findings by others that enhancer- and promoterlike regions are often located near matrix-associated regions, we asked whether these sequences might also be involved in binding to the nuclear matrix. Indeed, DNA fragments containing the -500 binding site were bound by nuclear matrix proteins. Furthermore, UV cross-linking studies showed that the DNA binding site for interleukin-5-plus-antigen-inducible proteins could also bind to proteins solubilized from the nuclear matrix. Nuclear matrix-associated sequences have also been demonstrated on either side of the intronic immunoglobulin heavy chain enhancer. Our data suggest a topological model by which interactions among proteins bound to the promoter and distal enhancer sequences might occur.