A model for the evolution of the mammalian t-cell receptor α/δ and μ loci based on evidence from the duckbill Platypus.

ABSTRACT: The specific recognition of antigen by T cells is critical to the generation of adaptive immune responses in vertebrates. T cells recognize antigen using a somatically diversified T-cell receptor (TCR). All jawed vertebrates use four TCR chains called α, β, γ, and δ, which are expressed as either a αβ or γδ heterodimer. Nonplacental mammals (monotremes and marsupials) are unusual in that their genomes encode a fifth TCR chain, called TCRµ, whose function is not known but is also somatically diversified like the conventional chains. The origins of TCRµ are also unclear, although it appears distantly related to TCRδ. Recent analysis of avian and amphibian genomes has provided insight into a model for understanding the evolution of the TCRδ genes in tetrapods that was not evident from humans,

SUBMITTER: Parra ZE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3457774 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature