IMGT, THE INTERNATIONAL IMMUNOGENETICS DATABASE

IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics database, is an integrated data base specialising in Immunoglobulins (Ig), T cell Receptors (TcR) and Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) of all vertebrate species, crea ted by Marie-Paule Lefranc, CNRS, Montpellier II University, Montpelli er, France (lefranc@ligm.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr). IMGT includes three databa ses: LIGM-DB (for Ig and TcR), MHC/HLA-DB and PRIMER-DB (the last two in development). IMGT comprises expertly annotated sequences and align ment tables. LIGM-DB contains more than 23 000 Immunoglobulin and T ce ll Receptor sequences from 78 species. MHC/HLA-DB contains Class I and Class II Human Leucocyte Antigen alignment tables. An IMGT tool, DNAP LOT, developed for Ig, TcR and MHC sequence alignments, is also availa ble. IMGT works in close collaboration with the EMBL database. IMGT go als are to establish a common data access to all immunogenetics data, including nucleotide and protein sequences, oligonucleotide primers, g ene maps and other genetic data of Ig, TcR and MHC molecules, and to p rovide a graphical user friendly data access. IMGT has important impli cations in medical research (repertoire in autoimmune diseases, AIDS, leukemias, lymphomas), therapeutical approaches (antibody engineering) , genome diversity and genome evolution studies. IMGT is freely availa ble at http://imgt.cnusc.fr:8104.