Skip to main content
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1988 Oct 1;168(4):1481–1486. doi: 10.1084/jem.168.4.1481

Structure of the gamma/delta T cell receptor of a human thymocyte clone

PMCID: PMC2189084  PMID: 2844954

Abstract

The CD3+, IL-2-dependent normal human thymocyte clone, CII, expresses on its surface a CD3-associated gamma/delta TCR. We have further elucidated the structure of this receptor from the nucleotide sequence of cDNA and genomic clones from CII that encode functional TCR-gamma and -delta chains. We find that the CII line expresses a C gamma 2 constant region that is a polymorphic form lacking a copy of an internal exon; the sequence of this constant region accounts for the size of the gamma chain and noncovalent linkage of gamma and delta chains in the CII TCR. The V gamma region used for the CII TCR is identical to the several previously characterized expressed human V gamma segments. Possible implications of this finding are discussed.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (370.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bank I., DePinho R. A., Brenner M. B., Cassimeris J., Alt F. W., Chess L. A functional T3 molecule associated with a novel heterodimer on the surface of immature human thymocytes. Nature. 1986 Jul 10;322(6075):179–181. doi: 10.1038/322179a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Borst J., van de Griend R. J., van Oostveen J. W., Ang S. L., Melief C. J., Seidman J. G., Bolhuis R. L. A T-cell receptor gamma/CD3 complex found on cloned functional lymphocytes. Nature. 1987 Feb 19;325(6106):683–688. doi: 10.1038/325683a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brenner M. B., McLean J., Scheft H., Riberdy J., Ang S. L., Seidman J. G., Devlin P., Krangel M. S. Two forms of the T-cell receptor gamma protein found on peripheral blood cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Nature. 1987 Feb 19;325(6106):689–694. doi: 10.1038/325689a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. DePinho R. A., Hatton K. S., Tesfaye A., Yancopoulos G. D., Alt F. W. The human myc gene family: structure and activity of L-myc and an L-myc pseudogene. Genes Dev. 1987 Dec;1(10):1311–1326. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.10.1311. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Elliott J. F., Rock E. P., Patten P. A., Davis M. M., Chien Y. H. The adult T-cell receptor delta-chain is diverse and distinct from that of fetal thymocytes. Nature. 1988 Feb 18;331(6157):627–631. doi: 10.1038/331627a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hata S., Brenner M. B., Krangel M. S. Identification of putative human T cell receptor delta complementary DNA clones. Science. 1987 Oct 30;238(4827):678–682. doi: 10.1126/science.3499667. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hochstenbach F., Parker C., McLean J., Gieselmann V., Band H., Bank I., Chess L., Spits H., Strominger J. L., Seidman J. G. Characterization of a third form of the human T cell receptor gamma/delta. J Exp Med. 1988 Aug 1;168(2):761–776. doi: 10.1084/jem.168.2.761. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Huck S., Dariavach P., Lefranc M. P. Variable region genes in the human T-cell rearranging gamma (TRG) locus: V-J junction and homology with the mouse genes. EMBO J. 1988 Mar;7(3):719–726. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02868.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Littman D. R., Newton M., Crommie D., Ang S. L., Seidman J. G., Gettner S. N., Weiss A. Characterization of an expressed CD3-associated Ti gamma-chain reveals C gamma domain polymorphism. Nature. 1987 Mar 5;326(6108):85–88. doi: 10.1038/326085a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Loh E. Y., Lanier L. L., Turck C. W., Littman D. R., Davis M. M., Chien Y. H., Weiss A. Identification and sequence of a fourth human T cell antigen receptor chain. Nature. 1987 Dec 10;330(6148):569–572. doi: 10.1038/330569a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Marrack P., Kappler J. The T cell receptor. Science. 1987 Nov 20;238(4830):1073–1079. doi: 10.1126/science.3317824. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pelicci P. G., Subar M., Weiss A., Dalla-Favera R., Littman D. R. Molecular diversity of the human T-gamma constant region genes. Science. 1987 Aug 28;237(4818):1051–1055. doi: 10.1126/science.3112943. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Takihara Y., Champagne E., Griesser H., Kimura N., Tkachuk D., Reimann J., Okada A., Alt F. W., Chess L., Minden M. Sequence and organization of the human T cell delta chain gene. Eur J Immunol. 1988 Feb;18(2):283–287. doi: 10.1002/eji.1830180216. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES