Characterization of the ferret TRB locus guided by V, D, J, and C gene expression analysis

Bram Gerritsen, Aridaman Pandit, Fatiha Zaaraoui-Boutahar, Mirjam C G N van den Hout, Wilfred F J van IJcken, Rob J de Boer, Arno C Andeweg

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

The domestic ferret, Mustela putorius furo, is an important mammalian animal model to study human respiratory infection. However, insufficient genomic annotation hampers detailed studies of ferret T cell responses. In this study, we analyzed the published T cell receptor beta (TRB) locus and performed high-throughput sequencing (HTS) of peripheral blood of four healthy adult ferrets to identify expressed V, D, J, and C genes. The HTS data is used as a guide to manually curate the expressed V, D, J, and C genes. The ferret locus appears to be most similar to that of the dog. Like other mammalian TRB loci, the ferret TRB locus contains a library of variable genes located upstream of two D-J-C gene clusters, followed by a (in the ferret non-functional) V gene with an inverted transcriptional orientation. All TRB genes (expressed or not) reported here have been approved by the IMGT/WHO-IUIS nomenclature committee.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalImmunogenetics
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Dec 2019

Keywords

  • T cell receptor
  • TRB locus
  • Ferret (Mustela putorius furo)
  • IMGT
  • Comparative genomics
  • Immune repertoire sequencing

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