title: Specificity and degeneracy of minor histocompatibility antigen-specific MHC-restricted CTL.
abstract: Random peptide libraries were employed to investigate the specificity of Ag recognition by H-3-specific, H-2K(b)-restricted CTL clones. The peptide libraries consist of octapeptides with one defined sequence position and mixtures of 19 amino acids (all proteinogenic amino acids except for cysteine) in the remaining seven sequence positions. The complete set of 152 peptide libraries includes all octapeptides possible with these amino acids. Responses of the CTL clones to these peptide libraries reveal patterns of preferred epitope amino acids. Depending on the CTL clone tested, varying numbers of different amino acids were identified for the different sequence positions indicating degeneracy of Ag recognition. Sequences for synthetic epitopes active at low pM concentrations could be deduced from these patterns. They confirm that TCRs of CTL clones do not exhibit specificity for unique ligand structures but rather can interact with sets of ligands. The sequences of peptides recognized by a single clone exhibit great sequence heterogeneity.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biology, Section of Immunogenetics, Tubingen, Germany.
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Gundlach
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wiesmüller
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Junt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kienle
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walden
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D002999:Clone Cells; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D006183:H-2 Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D015778:Minor Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D000939:Epitopes; D006183:H-2 Antigens; C032876:H-2Kb protein, mouse; D015778:Minor Histocompatibility Antigens; D010455:Peptides