The assembly of the gene segments coding for the variable portions of lymphocyte antigen receptors (immunoglobulins and T-cell receptors) occurs via a somatic recombination reaction known as V(D)J recombination. This process is mediated by two lymphoid cell-specific factors, RAG1 and RAG2 (recombination-activating gene products), that perform DNA cleavage at a pair of recombination signal sequences (RSSs) flanking the coding segments to be joined. RSSs consist of short palindromic heptamer and A/T-rich nonamer elements separated by a less well conserved spacer of 12 or 23 bp (12-RSS and 23-RSS). In vivo, recombination occurs most efficiently with a 12/23 RSS pair, a phenomenon referred to as the 12/23 rule.Under appropriate conditions in vitro, the RAG proteins together with high-mobility-group protein HMGB1 or HMGB2 perform coupled DNA cleavage of RSS substrates in accordance with the 12/23 rule (16). This process is thought to be initiated by the binding of the RAG recombinase to one RSS, followed by the capture of a second RSS, thus assembling the synaptic, or paired, complex (PC) (22, 28). HMGB1 and HMGB2 proteins play critical roles in vitro in facilitating the binding of the RAG proteins to the 23-RSS and the formation of the PC (15, 16), activities thought to rely on their ability to recognize bent or distorted DNA structures (3, 7). DNA cleavage takes place in two steps: a nick is first introduced between the heptamer and the coding DNA, and the 3Ј hydroxyl group thus liberated then attacks the other strand of the duplex to generate a covalently sealed hairpin coding end and a blunt signal end (16). Nicking can occur before or after synapsis, but hairpin formation occurs coordinately at the two RSSs within the PC (15). The PC is thus a critical intermediate in which the recombining partners are chosen and DNA double-strand breaks are made.Numerous studies have identified functionally important residues and domains within the catalytically essential, or core, region of RAG1 (10): an N-terminal nonamer binding domain that interacts with the RSS nonamer, a central domain that interacts with RAG2 and the heptamer and contains two of three acidic residues thought to contribute to the RAG active site, and a C-terminal domain with dimerization and nonspecific DNA binding activity and the third active-site residue. Less is known about the RAG2 core region.The structure of the PC is poorly understood. The PC is thought to contain two (37) or more than two (28) RAG1 monomers, two monomers of RAG2 (28,37), and an unknown number of HMGB1 or HMGB2 subunits. The nonamer binding and catalytic domains that interact with a particular RSS are contributed by different RAG1 monomers (36). This and the dependence of hairpin formation upon synapsis suggest careful coordination between the catalytic events at the two RSSs, a possibility supported by the finding that nicking at one RSS is required for hairpin formation at the partner RSS (41).Very little is known about the structure of the two DNA molecules in the PC. RAG1/2 an...