Activation-induced cytidine deaminase-mediated sequence diversification is transiently targeted to newly integrated DNA substrates

The molecular features that allow activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) to target Ig and certain non-Ig genes are not understood, although transcription has been implicated as one important parameter. We explored this issue by testing the mutability of a non-Ig transcription cassette in Ig and non-Ig loci of the chicken B cell line DT40. The cassette did not act as a stable long term mutation target but was able to be mutated in an AID-dependent manner for a limited time post-integration. This indicates that newly integrated DNA has molecular characteristics that render it susceptible to modification by AID, with implications for how targeting and mis-targeting of AID occurs.