Abstract

Natural killer T cells expressing 'invariant' T cell receptor -chains (TCR chains) containing variable (V) and joining (J) region V14-J18 (V14i) rearrangements recognize both endogenous and microbial glycolipids in the context of CD1d. How cells expressing an invariant TCR chain and a restricted set of TCR chains recognize structurally diverse antigens is not clear. Here we show that a V14i TCR recognized many -linked glycolipids by means of a 'hot-spot' of germline-encoded amino acids in complementarity-determining regions 3, 1 and 2. This hot-spot did not shift during the recognition of structurally distinct antigens, suggesting that the V14i TCR functions as a pattern-recognition receptor, conferring on natural killer T cells the ability to sense and respond in an innate way to pathogens displaying antigenic -linked glycolipids.

1. Department of Immunology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver, Colorado, 80206, USA.
2. The Protein Crystallography Unit, ARC Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
5. Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Ist 80220, USA.
6. Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
7. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado 80220, USA.
8. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Laurent Gapin¹ e-mail: gapinl@njc.org

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NPG Journals

by Subject Area

• Chemistry

  • Chemistry
  • Drug discovery
  • Biotechnology
  • Materials
  • Methods & Protocols

• Clinical Practice & Research

  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular medicine
  • Dentistry
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology & Hepatology
  • Methods & Protocols
  • Pathology & Pathobiology
  • Urology

• Earth & Environment

  • Earth sciences
  • Evolution & Ecology

• Life sciences

  • Biotechnology
  • Cancer
  • Development
  • Drug discovery
  • Evolution & Ecology
  • Genetics
  • Immunology
  • Medical research
  • Methods & Protocols
  • Microbiology
  • Molecular cell biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Systems biology

• Physical sciences

  • Physics
  • Materials

by A - Z Index