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The T Cell Receptor Locus of the Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, Reveals Unique Features¹

He Zhou^2,*,, Eva Bengtén^*, Norman W. Miller^*, L. William Clem^* and Melanie Wilson^3,*

^* Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS 39216; and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037

Previously, a series of clonal alloantigen-dependent T cell lines established from the channel catfish revealed distinctly different TCR rearrangements. Here, a follow-up study of the junctional diversity of these TCR gene rearrangements focuses on characterization of the genomic organization of the TCRB locus. Surprisingly, a total of 29 JB genes and two substantially different CB genes were identified downstream of a single DB gene. This is in contrast to the situation in mammals, where two clusters of a DB gene, six or seven JB genes, and a CB gene are found in tandem. The catfish CB genes are 36% identical at the amino acid level. All 29 catfish JB gene segments appear functional. Thirteen were used in the 19 cDNAs analyzed, of these eight were used by the 11 catfish clonal alloantigen-dependent T cell lines. As might be expected, CDR3 diversity is enhanced by N-nucleotide additions as well as nucleotide deletions at the V-D and D-J junctions. Taken together, compared with that in mammals, genomic sequencing of the catfish TCR DB-JB-CB region reveals a unique locus containing a greater number of JB genes and two distinct CB genes.