The deacetylase activity of histone deacetylase 3 is required for productive VDJ recombination and B cell development [RNA-seq]

Histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) is the catalytic component of NCoR/SMRT corepressor complexes that mediate the actions of transcription factors implicated in the regulation of B cell development and function. We crossed Hdac3 conditional knockout mice with Mb1-Cre knockin animals to delete Hdac3 in early progenitor B cells. The spleens of Hdac3F/-Mb1-Cre+/- mice were virtually devoid of mature B cells, and B220+CD43+ B cell progenitors accumulated within the bone marrow. Quantitative deep sequencing of the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus from B220+CD43+ populations identified a defect in VHDJH recombination with a severe reduction in productive rearrangements, which directly corresponded to the loss of pre-B cells from Hdac3D/- bone marrow. For Hdac3D/- B cells that did show productive VDJ rearrangement, there was significant skewing toward the incorporation of proximal VH gene segments and a corresponding reduction in distal VH gene segment usage. While transcriptional effects within these loci were modest, Hdac3D/- progenitor cells displayed global changes in chromatin structure that likely hindered effective distal V-DJ recombination. Re-introduction of wild type Hdac3 restored normal B cell development, whereas an Hdac3 point mutant lacking deacetylase activity failed to complement this defect. Thus, the deacetylase activity of Hdac3 is required for the generation of mature B cells. Bone marrow was isolated from Hdac3+/+Mb1cre+/- or Hdac3F/-Mb1cre+/- mice at 8 weeks of age. B220+CD43+ B cells were isolated from marrow by FACS and cells from two mice were pooled per sample. Total RNA isolated by Trizol extraction.