Reference no: EM134019123

Question

The antibody genes and the process of V(D)J recombination were discovered several years prior to the isolation of genes encoding the T-cell receptor chains. Once the T-cell receptor genes were sequenced, it became apparent that the process of gene rearrangement used to generate antigen-receptor diversity was conserved between B cells and T cells. Of particular importance was the discovery of recombination signal sequences (RSSs) flanking the V-region gene segments of T-cell receptors, which were indistinguishable from those flanking the V-region gene segments of the antibody heavy and light chains. What did this discovery indicate? T-cell receptor gene rearrangements most likely obey the 12/23 rule. T-cell receptor gene rearrangements would likely contain N-nucleotides at their junctions. The overall diversity of the T-cell receptor repertoire was likely to be identical to that of antibodies. T-cell receptor β-chain gene rearrangements can include 0, 1, or 2 D gene segments. T-cell receptor genes would require splicing of the coding exons in the primary RNA transcript prior to translation.