Developmental Regulation of VDJ Recombination By the Core Fragment of the T Cell Receptor α Enhancer

The role of T cell receptor alpha enhancer (E alpha) cis-acting elements in the developmental regulation of VDJ recombination at the TCR alpha/delta locus was examined in transgenic mice containing variants of a minilocus VDJ recombination substrate. We demonstrate that the 116-bp T alpha 1,2 core enhancer fragment of the 1.4-kb E alpha is sufficient to activate the enhancer-dependent step of minilocus rearrangement, and that within T alpha 1,2,...