M. Gallagher et al., USE OF TCR ADV GENE SEGMENTS BY THE DELTA-CHAIN IS INDEPENDENT OF THEIR POSITION AND OF CD3 EXPRESSION, European Journal of Immunology, 28(11), 1998, pp. 3878-3885
The CD3 signaling complex is required for cell surface expression and
selection of both alpha beta and gamma delta TCR. In this study we ana
lyzed TCRD transcripts in both wild-type and CD3-epsilon-deficient mic
e. We show that the repertoire of ADV segments used by the delta chain
is unchanged in the latter. Not all ADV genes participate in making u
p the TCRD repertoire. However, their use does not depend on their dis
tance from the other TCRD-forming segments. For example ADV12, situate
d at more than 870 kb from the DD region, is expressed as part of TCRD
transcripts, whereas ADV8, members of which are proximal to the DD re
gion, is not. These data suggest that the accessibility of ADV8 gene s
egments is differentially regulated during T cell development in the t
hymus. Taken together, our results suggest that TCRA and TCRD rearrang
ements are independently controlled, and that the absence of TCRA expr
ession in CD3-epsilon-deficient, mice is not due to a lack of accessib
ility of the ADV gene segments but rather to inaccessibility of the AJ
gene region.