A defect in G-quadruplex binding disrupts AID chromatin localization

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) plays a vital role in adaptive immunity by enabling class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM). While many molecular factors affect AID targeting and function, mounting evidence implicates G-quadruplex (G4) nucleic acid structures as critical effectors of AID biology. To examine the function of AID-G4 binding in vivo, we generated a knock-in mouse with a mutation in Aicda (AIDG133V) that disrupts AID-G4 binding without altering DNA deaminase activity. AIDG133V mice completely lack CSR and SHM, modeling the pathology of hyper-IgM syndrome patients with an orthologous mutation. ChIP-sequencing experiments reveal a broad defect in AIDG133V chromatin localization, implicating AID-G4 binding in genome-wide AID targeting. We find that major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II genes are AID targets, and that increased AID expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) correlates with decreased MHC class II expression. Given that loss of MHC class II expression in DLBCLs is highly correlated with adverse outcomes, AID-dependent gene regulation may provide a novel therapeutic target. WT, AID-/- or AID G133V/G133V splenic B cells were stimulated with LPS (30 μg/ml) plus mouse IL-4 (12.5ng/ml) for 72 hours and prepared for ChIP-seq assay.