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. 1987 Oct;84(19):6884–6888. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.19.6884

Diversity and structure of human T-cell receptor alpha-chain variable region genes.

M H Klein 1, P Concannon 1, M Everett 1, L D Kim 1, T Hunkapiller 1, L Hood 1
PMCID: PMC299189  PMID: 3502713

Abstract

The nucleotide sequences of 27 T-cell receptor alpha-chain variable region (V alpha)-containing cDNA clones isolated from a cDNA library derived from human peripheral blood lymphocytes were determined. Eighteen different V alpha and 26 different joining (J alpha) gene segments are utilized in these clones. The V alpha gene segments belong to 12 different subfamilies, each containing from one to seven members. Comparisons with the 16 different V alpha and 21 different J alpha sequences previously reported suggest that the germ-line repertoires for these gene segments are greater than previously estimated. Flexibility in the sites of gene segment joining and possibly N-region diversification also contribute to human alpha-chain diversity. Comparisons of human V alpha regions indicate a high degree of variability spread uniformly across the entire V alpha region without obvious hypervariable regions. However, amino acids important for the maintenance of V gene structure are conserved.

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Selected References

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

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