Giudicelli Véronique, Chaume Denys, Lefranc Marie-Paule
IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system, Laboratoire d'ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire, LIGM, Institut de Génétique Humaine IGH, UPR CNRS 1142, 141 rue de la Cardonille, F-34396 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2004 Jul 1;32(Web Server issue):W435-40. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkh412.
IMGT/V-QUEST, for 'V-QUEry and STandardization', is an integrated software program which analyses the immunoglobulin (IG) and T cell receptor (TR) rearranged nucleotide sequences. The extraordinary diversity of the IG and TR repertoires (10(12) antibodies and 10(12) TR per individual) results from several mechanisms at the DNA level: the combinatorial diversity of the variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) genes, the N-diversity and, for IG, the somatic mutations. IMGT/V-QUEST identifies the V, D and J genes and alleles by alignment with the germline IG and TR gene and allele sequences of the IMGT reference directory. IMGT/V-QUEST delimits the structurally important features, frameworks and complementarity-determining regions (the last of these forming the antigen binding site), on the basis of the IMGT unique numbering. The tool localizes the somatic mutations of the IG rearranged sequences. IMGT/V-QUEST also dynamically displays a graphical two-dimensional representation, or IMGT Collier de Perles, of the IG and TR variable regions. Moreover, IMGT/V-QUEST can interact with IMGT/JunctionAnalysis for the detailed description of the V-J and V-D-J junctions, and with IMGT/PhyloGene for the construction of phylogenetic trees. IMGT/V-QUEST is currently available for human and mouse, and partly for non-human primates, sheep, chondrichthyes and teleostei. IMGT/V-QUEST is freely available at http://imgt.cines.fr.
IMGT/V-QUEST，即“V基因查询与标准化”，是一款集成软件程序，用于分析免疫球蛋白（IG）和T细胞受体（TR）重排的核苷酸序列。IG和TR库具有非凡的多样性（每人有10¹²种抗体和10¹²种TR），这是由DNA水平上的多种机制导致的：可变（V）、多样（D）和连接（J）基因的组合多样性、N多样性，以及对于IG来说的体细胞突变。IMGT/V-QUEST通过与IMGT参考目录中的种系IG和TR基因及等位基因序列比对，来识别V、D和J基因及等位基因。IMGT/V-QUEST根据IMGT独特编号界定结构上重要的特征、框架和互补决定区（其中最后一项形成抗原结合位点）。该工具可定位IG重排序列的体细胞突变。IMGT/V-QUEST还能动态显示IG和TR可变区的二维图形表示，即IMGT珠链图。此外，IMGT/V-QUEST可与IMGT/连接分析软件交互以详细描述V-J和V-D-J连接，并与IMGT/系统发育基因软件交互以构建系统发育树。IMGT/V-QUEST目前可用于人类和小鼠，部分适用于非人类灵长类动物、绵羊、软骨鱼和硬骨鱼。IMGT/V-QUEST可在http://imgt.cines.fr免费获取。
