The Journal of Experimental Medicine
for flow cytometry > invitrogen
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

Published online 3 September 2001. doi:10.1084/jem.194.5.695
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 203K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JEM
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gibbons, D.
Right arrow Articles by Hayday, A. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gibbons, D.
Right arrow Articles by Hayday, A. C.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?
© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/2001/9/695/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 194, Number 5, September 3, 2001 695-704


Brief Definitive Report

The Biological Activity of Natural and Mutant Pt{alpha} Alleles

Deena Gibbonsa, Nataki C. Douglasd, Domingo F. Barberd, Qiang Liua, Renee Sullod, Liping Gengd, Hans-Joerg Fehlingc, Harald von Boehmerb, and Adrian C. Haydaya,d

a Guy's King's St. Thomas' Medical School, Guy's Hospital, London Bridge, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom
b Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
c Department of Immunology, Medical Faculty/University Clinics Ulm, D-89070 Ulm, Germany
d Yale University, Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, New Haven, CT 06520
Peter Gorer Department of Immunobiology, GKT School of Medicine, King's College, London, 3rd Floor New Guy's House, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, United Kingdom.44-(0)20-7955-496144-(0)20-7955-8768

adrian.hayday{at}kcl.ac.uk

β selection is a major checkpoint in early thymocyte differentiation, mediated by successful expression of the pre-T cell receptor (TCR) comprising the TCRβ chain, CD3 proteins, and a surrogate TCR{alpha} chain, pT{alpha}. The mechanism of action of the pre-TCR is unresolved. In humans and mice, the pT{alpha} gene encodes two RNAs, pT{alpha}a, and a substantially truncated form, pT{alpha}b. This study shows that both are biologically active in their capacity to rescue multiple thymocyte defects in pT{alpha}–/– mice. Further active alleles of pT{alpha} include one that lacks both the major ectodomain and much of the long cytoplasmic tail (which is unique among antigen receptor chains), and another in which the cytoplasmic tail is substituted with the short tail of TCR C{alpha}. Thus, very little of the pT{alpha} chain is required for function. These data support a hypothesis that the primary role of pT{alpha} is to stabilize the pre-TCR, and that much of the conserved structure of pT{alpha} probably plays a critical regulatory role.

Key Words: pre-TCR • thymocyte development • {alpha}/β T cells • allelic exlusion • transgenic


D. Gibbons, N.C. Douglas, and D.F. Barber contributed equally to this work.

D.F. Barber's present address is Laboratory of Immunogenetics, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852.

L. Geng's present address is Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115.

Q. Liu's present address is Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.

© 2001 The Rockefeller University Press


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search
TABLE OF CONTENTS