Organization and orientation of a human T cell receptor delta chain V gene segment that suggests an inversion mechanism is utilized in its rearrangement.

A human T cell receptor (TcR) delta chain variable region segment, V delta 3, has been mapped 2 kilobases 3' to the constant (C delta) gene. The V delta 3 gene segment is in an inverted transcriptional orientation to the diversity regions (D delta), joining regions (J delta) and C delta gene segments. Analyses of TcR delta cDNA clone, KT041, showed that V delta 3 is linked to D delta 1, D delta 2, J delta 3 and C delta and that this message encodes a potentially functional TcR delta chain. These findings indicate that a functional TcR delta gene can be constructed through a chromosomal inversion, suggesting that in human, chromosomal inversion is one of the important rearrangement mechanisms.