A new antigen receptor gene family that undergoes rearrangement and extensive somatic diversification in sharks

IMMUNOGLOBULIN and T-cell receptor (TCR) molecules are central to the adaptive immune system. Sequence conservation, similarities in domain structure, and usage of similar recombination signal sequences and recombination machinery indicate that there was probably a time during evolution when an ance...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1995-03, Vol.374 (6518), p.168-173
Main Authors: Greenberg, Andrew S, Avila, David, Hughes, Marianne, Hughes, Austin, McKinney, E. Churchill, Flajnik, Martin F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Base Sequence
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Cloning, Molecular
DNA, Complementary
Elasmobranchiomorphi
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Rearrangement
Genes
Genes. Genome
Genetics
Ginglymostoma cirratum
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Immune system
Immunoglobulins - genetics
Lamniformes
letter
Marine
Molecular and cellular biology
Molecular genetics
Molecular Sequence Data
multidisciplinary
Phylogeny
Receptors, Antigen - genetics
Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell - genetics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sharks
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Summary:IMMUNOGLOBULIN and T-cell receptor (TCR) molecules are central to the adaptive immune system. Sequence conservation, similarities in domain structure, and usage of similar recombination signal sequences and recombination machinery indicate that there was probably a time during evolution when an ancestral receptor diverged to the modern-day immunoglobulin and TCR 1–3 . Other molecules that undergo rearrangement have not been described in vertebrates, nor have intermediates been identified that have features of both these gene families. We report here the isolation of a new member of the immunoglobulin superfamily from the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum , which contains one variable and five constant domains and is found as a dimer in serum. Analyses of complementary DNA clones show extensive sequence diversity within variable domains, which is generated by both rearrangement and somatic diversification mechanisms. Our results suggest that rearranging loci distinct from immunoglobulin and TCR have arisen during evolution.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/374168a0