Recent reports have more precisely defined the distribution of somatic mutations around rearranged mouse V-D-J genes. The 5' boundary of mutation is most likely in the region of the transcription start site (cap) and/or the promoter (P), implying that transcription may be a prerequisite for mutations to be generated. As more than 95% of somatic mutations lie downstream of the cap site, the transcription unit itself is implicated as the target of the mutational machinery. For heavy chain genes, the 3' boundary can extend into the enhancer region (E). For kappa light chain genes, the 3' boundary extends to approximately 700 bp beyond J kappa-5 (approximately 700 bp upstream of E). In a single study on mutated derivatives of the rearranged mouse lambda 1 light chain V-J gene, it was claimed that the 3' boundary fell within the constant region (C) exon. Although more data are required, the frequency of mutations around V-D-J genes appears asymmetrical, being positively skewed with a single mode centred near the V-D-J coding region and a long tail extending into the 3' non-translated region of the J-C intron. Such a distribution may place constraints on possible molecular mechanisms. It is suggested that the apparent asymmetrical pattern of mutation is best explained by models that assume localized error-prone DNA synthesis generating variable fragment lengths of mutated DNA or cDNA retrotranscripts. The frequency distribution of these lengths of mutated DNA is positively skewed into the 3' J-C intron, with a common terminus at or near the cap site. It is then assumed that they can be integrated into the target V-D-J region via a gene conversion or homologous recombination process. The model invoking reverse transcription may be preferred as it best explains the data without too many ad hoc assumptions.

We present here a unifying hypothesis for the molecular mechanism of somatic hypermutation and somatic gene conversion in IgV genes involving reverse transcription using RNA templates from the V-gene loci to produce cDNA which undergoes homologous recombination with chromosomal V(D)J DNA. Experimental evidence produced over the last 20 years is essentially consistent with this hypothesis. We also review evidence suggesting that somatically generated IgV sequences from B lymphocytes have been fed back to germline DNA over evolutionary time.