| First Author | Marrack P | Year | 2017 |
| Journal | Elife | Volume | 6 |
| PubMed ID | 29148973 | Mgi Jnum | J:254994 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6111032 | Doi | 10.7554/eLife.30918 |
| Citation | Marrack P, et al. (2017) The somatically generated portion of T cell receptor CDR3alpha contributes to the MHC allele specificity of the T cell receptor. Elife 6:e30918 |
| abstractText | Mature T cells bearing alphabeta T cell receptors react with foreign antigens bound to alleles of major histocompatibility complex proteins (MHC) that they were exposed to during their development in the thymus, a phenomenon known as positive selection. The structural basis for positive selection has long been debated. Here, using mice expressing one of two different T cell receptor beta chains and various MHC alleles, we show that positive selection-induced MHC bias of T cell receptors is affected both by the germline encoded elements of the T cell receptor alpha and beta chain and, surprisingly, dramatically affected by the non germ line encoded portions of CDR3 of the T cell receptor alpha chain. Thus, in addition to determining specificity for antigen, the non germline encoded elements of T cell receptors may help the proteins cope with the extremely polymorphic nature of major histocompatibility complex products within the species. |
