title: T cell receptor genes in a series of class I major histocompatibility complex-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte clones specific for a Plasmodium berghei nonapeptide: implications for T cell allelic exclusion and antigen-specific repertoire.
abstract: We report here the first extensive study of a T cell repertoire for a class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response. We have found that the T cell receptors (TCRs) carried by 28 H-2Kd-restricted CTL clones specific for a single Plasmodium berghei circumsporozoite nonapeptide are highly diverse in terms of V alpha, J alpha, and J beta segments and aminoacid composition of the junctional regions. However, despite this extensive diversity, a high proportion of the TCRs contain the same V beta segment. These results are in contrast to most previously reported T cell responses towards class II MHC-peptide complexes, where the TCR repertoires appeared to be much more limited. In our study, the finding of a dominant V beta in the midst of otherwise highly diverse TCRs suggests the importance of the V beta segment in shaping the T cell repertoire specific for a given MHC-peptide complex. As an additional finding, we observed that nearly all clones have rearranged both TCR alpha loci. Moreover, as many as one-third of the CTL clones that we analyzed apparently display two productive alpha rearrangements. This argues against a regulated model of sequential recombination at the alpha locus and consequently raises the question of whether allelic exclusion of the TCR alpha chain is achieved at all.
authors.affiliation: Biologie Moléculaire du Gène, INSERM U277, Institut Pasteur, Paris.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Casanova
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Widmann
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kourilsky
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Maryanski
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002999:Clone Cells; D015329:Gene Rearrangement, T-Lymphocyte; D006183:H-2 Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000276:immunology*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D006183:H-2 Antigens; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta