B cell maturation protein is a receptor for the tumor necrosis factor family member TALL-1
Authors: H Johnson
H B Shu
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2000)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: TALL-1; BCMA; B lymphocytes; TNF family; NF-kappaB
Affiliations: Department of Immunology, National Jewish Medical and Research Center and University of Colorado School of Medicine, 1400 Jackson Street, K516c, Denver, CO 80206, USA. 

Abstract:  TALL-1 is a recently identified member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family that costimulates B lymphocyte proliferation. Here we show that B cell maturation protein (BCMA), a member of the TNF receptor family that is expressed only by B lymphocytes, specifically binds to TALL-1. A soluble receptor containing the extracellular domain of BCMA blocks the binding of TALL-1 to its receptor on the plasma membrane and inhibits TALL-1-triggered B lymphocyte costimulation. Overexpression of BCMA activates NF-kappaB, and this activation is potentiated by TALL-1. Moreover, BCMA-mediated NF-kappaB activation is inhibited by dominant negative mutants of TNF receptor-associated factor 5 (TRAF5), TRAF6, NF-kappaB-inducing kinase (NIK), and IkappaB kinase (IKK). These data indicate that BCMA is a receptor for TALL-1 and BCMA activates NF-kappaB through a TRAF5-, TRAF6-, NIK-, and IKK-dependent pathway. The identification of BCMA as a NF-kappaB-activating receptor for TALL-1 suggests molecular targets for drug development against certain immunodeficient or autoimmune diseases. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 I am very concerning about the primers of TALL1 and BCMA, none of them shows amplification by In-Silico PCR. ![file] , 
 Also, I doubt whether it has been carried out effectively molecular cloning of BCMA. According to the method provided by the manuscript, u201cPCR product was digested with EcoRI and BamHIu201d. Please explain how to inserted this fragment into u201cthe EcoRI and BglII sites of the pCMV1-Flag-Fc plasmidu201d. Whatu2019s more, I notice there is an EcoRI site in BCMA sequence. This issue also needs an explanation. ![file] , 
 #1, #2 Your analysis is faulty and hence your concerns are unfounded. For the BCMA clone, using the GenBank sequence # given in the paper (AA259026), it is obvious that (a) the primers listed DO anneal to the sequence, (b) it amplifies codons 1-61, adding EcoRI and BamHI sites in the primers, and (c) the EcoRI site that you identified is roughly 70 bp upstream of the amplified region and hence is irrelevant. See below. It s hard to see how you flubbed this very simple analysis. Update edit: Also, please note that BamHI and BglII sites have compatible overhangs. Thus, it is a simple matter to ligate a PCR fragment cut with EcoRI+BamHI to a vector cut with EcoRI+BglII. This is standard, common practice. ![file] I did not check the TALL-1 clone. You might want to recheck your prior analysis. Update edit: the TALL-1 sequence was PCR amplified from a cDNA. There are several mRNA variants listed in GenBank, most of which show clear annealing to the downstream reverse primer from the paper. I did not find any that show annealing to the upstream forward primer, but this might be due simply to the use of a cDNA template that differs from those in the database. , 
 #3 I am the corresponding author. Thank you for your expert explanation. I am not sure how much the #1 commentor know about molecular biology and what his her purpose is to question a series of our papers without meaningful scientific discussions. , 
 #2 #3 commentor has explained very well to your concerns. I think him her for that. Hong-Bing Shu ,