title: Junctional biases in the naive TCR repertoire control the CTL response to an immunodominant determinant of HSV-1.
abstract: The enormous diversity of the T cell pool makes it difficult to determine whether inherent biases in the naive TCR repertoire can influence T cell responsiveness. In C57BL/6 mice the cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to an immunodominant HSV-1 determinant (gB) is characterized by a prominent bias in Vbeta element usage, associated with a conserved and preferentially D element-encoded CDR3 sequence. Comparison of naive and gB-specific T cell populations revealed a similar enrichment of germline D element-encoded CDR3 sequences in the preimmune repertoire. Strikingly, eliminating the germline coding of the gB-specific CDR3 sequence caused an almost complete loss of the dominant subset of gB-specific T cells, illustrating that CDR3 biases can significantly alter both the composition and strength of an immune response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Immunology, Monash Medical School, Prahran, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bryden
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cose
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Coles
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Schumacher
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: F R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Carbone
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D007135:Immunoglobulin Variable Region; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell