Sim G K, Yagüe J, Nelson J, Marrack P, Palmer E, Augustin A, Kappler J
Nature. 1984;312(5996):771-5. doi: 10.1038/312771a0.
The T-cell receptor has been studied intensely over the past 10 years in an effort to understand the molecular basis for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restricted antigen recognition. The use of anti-receptor monoclonal antibodies to isolate and characterize the receptor from human and murine T-cell clones has shown that the protein consists of two disulphide-linked glycopeptides, alpha and beta, distinct from known immunoglobulin light and heavy chains. Like immunoglobulin light and heavy chains, however, both the alpha- and beta-chains are composed of variable and constant regions. Molecular cloning has revealed that the beta-chain is evolutionarily related to immunoglobulins, and is encoded in separate V (variable), D (diversity), J (joining) and C (constant) segments that are rearranged in T cells to produce a functional gene. We report here cDNA clones encoding the alpha-chain of the receptor of the human T-cell leukaemia line HPB-MLT. Using these cDNA probes, we find that expression of alpha-chain mRNA and rearrangement of an alpha-chain V-gene segment occur only in T cells. The protein sequence predicted by these cDNAs is homologous to T-cell receptor beta-chains and to immunoglobulin heavy and light chains, particularly in the V and J segments.
在过去十年中，人们对T细胞受体进行了深入研究，旨在了解主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）限制的抗原识别的分子基础。利用抗受体单克隆抗体从人和鼠T细胞克隆中分离并鉴定该受体，结果表明该蛋白质由两个通过二硫键连接的糖肽α和β组成，与已知的免疫球蛋白轻链和重链不同。然而，与免疫球蛋白轻链和重链一样，α链和β链均由可变区和恒定区组成。分子克隆显示，β链在进化上与免疫球蛋白相关，并且由在T细胞中重排以产生功能性基因的单独的V（可变）、D（多样）、J（连接）和C（恒定）区段编码。我们在此报告编码人T细胞白血病系HPB-MLT受体α链的cDNA克隆。使用这些cDNA探针，我们发现α链mRNA的表达和α链V基因区段的重排仅发生在T细胞中。这些cDNA预测的蛋白质序列与T细胞受体β链以及免疫球蛋白重链和轻链同源，特别是在V和J区段。
