T-CELL RECEPTOR-IOTA AN ALTERNATIVELY SPLICED PRODUCT OF THE T-CELL RECEPTOR-ZETA GENE

It has been previously suggested that three alternative splicing of th e murine T cell receptor (TCR) zeta gene are involved in the regulatio n of TCR/CD3 transduction signals. We here describe a new alternative splicing of this gene (TCR iota), cloned by reverse transcriptase-poly merase chain reaction, that is encoded by exons 1-7 and 10. The protei n putatively encoded by TCR iota mRNA differs in its carboxy terminus from that coded by TCR theta as a consequence of the reading frame shi ft of exon 10. The possible role of this new splicing in TCR modulatio n is briefly discussed.