title: Using bioinformatics tools for the sequence analysis of immunoglobulins and T cell receptors.
abstract: The huge potential repertoire of 10(12) immunoglobulins and 10(12) T cell receptors per individual results from complex mechanisms of combinatorial diversity between the variable (V), diversity (D), and junction (J) genes, nucleotide deletions and insertions (N-diversity) at the junctions and, for the immunoglobulins, somatic hypermutations. The accurate analysis of rearranged immunoglobulin and T cell receptor sequences, and the annotation of the junctions, therefore represent a huge challenge. The IMGT Scientific chart rules, based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts, were the prerequisites for the implementation of the IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/JunctionAnalysis tools. IMGT/V-QUEST analyzes germline V and rearranged V-J or V-D-J nucleotide sequences. IMGT/JunctionAnalysis is the first tool that automatically analyzes the complex junctions in detail. These interactive tools are easy to use and freely available on the Web (http://imgt.cines.fr), either separately or integrated.
authors.affiliation: IMGT, Université Montpellier II, CNRS, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Paule
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Lefranc
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D015322:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte; D005803:Genes, Immunoglobulin; D006801:Humans; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D027041:Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin
chemical_list: D007136:Immunoglobulins; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell