title: Characterization of the mouse Tcra-V22 gene subfamily.
abstract: T-cell receptors (Tcrs) of higher organisms play a key role in the specific recognition of self and non-self molecules in the immune system. The large number of Tcr variable (V) genes have been organized into V gene subfamilies according to their sequence similarity at the nucleotide and amino acid level. We cloned and characterized four new members of the Tcra-V22 gene subfamily at the genomic level using a simple and sensitive technique that can rapidly clone members of any multi-member gene family. Sequence analysis reveals that the four Tcra-V22 gene subfamily members have more than 98% sequence similarity in their coding regions, at the nucleotide and amino acid levels. However, the intron between the leader and the coding region varies up to 7% between members of the Tcra-V22 gene subfamily. Comparison of the multi-member Tcra-V22 gene subfamily with other multi-member Tcra-V gene subfamilies (V2, V8, and V11), shows that Tcra-V22 is unique in that it has multiple members with nearly identical amino acid sequence and which are not inherently pseudogenes. Sequence similarity analysis of the Tcra-V22 subfamily with the prototypes of all other Tcra-V subfamilies revealed that the Tcra-V22 subfamily has the closest sequence similarity to that of Tcra-V18 (77% at the nucleotide level and 71% at the amino acid level).
authors.affiliation: Center for Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Dattamajumdar
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ladiges
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Hood
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Osman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta