Evolution of the T-Cell Receptor (TR) Loci in the Adaptive Immune Response: The Tale of the TRG Locus in Mammals

Genes

Anna Caputi Jambrenghi¹  Francesco Giannico¹  Serafina Massari²  Salvatrice Ciccarese³  Giovanna Linguiti³  Rachele Antonacci³  Marie-Paule Lefranc⁴ 

[1] Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy;Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Technologies, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy;Department of Biology, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy;IMGT®, the International ImMunoGeneTics Information System®, Laboratoire d’ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire LIGM, Institut de Génétique Humaine IGH, UMR9002 CNRS, Université de Montpellier, CEDEX 5, 34396 Montpellier, France;

关键词: T cell receptor;    TRG locus;    TRG genes;    immunogenomics;    evolution;    mammals;   

DOI  :  10.3390/genes11060624

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

T lymphocytes are the principal actors of vertebrates’ cell-mediated immunity. Like B cells, they can recognize an unlimited number of foreign molecules through their antigen-specific heterodimer receptors (TRs), which consist of αβ or γδ chains. The diversity of the TRs is mainly due to the unique organization of the genes encoding the α, β, γ, and δ chains. For each chain, multi-gene families are arranged in a TR locus, and their expression is guaranteed by the somatic recombination process. A great plasticity of the gene organization within the TR loci exists among species. Marked structural differences affect the TR γ (TRG) locus. The recent sequencing of multiple whole genome provides an opportunity to examine the TR gene repertoire in a systematic and consistent fashion. In this review, we report the most recent findings on the genomic organization of TRG loci in mammalian species in order to show differences and similarities. The comparison revealed remarkable diversification of both the genomic organization and gene repertoire across species, but also unexpected evolutionary conservation, which highlights the important role of the T cells in the immune response.

【 授权许可】

Unknown