IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system®

logo IMGT

T cell receptors

T cell receptors are proteins on the surface membrane of T lymphocytes, capable of specific recognition and binding with a peptide (or "processed antigen") associated with a major histocompatibility (MH) (human leucocyte antigen (HLA) in human).

The molecular synthesis of the T cell receptor (TR) chains includes, as that of the immunoglobulin (IG) chains, complex mechanisms such as DNA rearrangements, nucleotide insertions and deletions, but in contrast to the IG, there are no somatic hypermutations. One individual potentially produces more than 1012 different TR. The limiting factor is not the diversity mechanisms but the number of T cells that an organism can produce.

IMGT-ONTOLOGY

IMGT Education

IMGT Repertoire

IMGT/3Dstructure-DB

IMGT Immunoinformatics page (IMGT Bloc-notes): Databases - Tools - Resources

Abbreviations:
  1. TcR: T cell receptor (as a multimeric receptor and in general)
  2. TR: T cell receptor (for gene, locus, and for IMGT standardized data)
GeneOntology:
  1. GO:0042101 T-cell receptor complex

Reference:
[1] Lefranc, M.-P. and Lefranc, G., The T cell receptor FactsBook, Academic Press, 398 pages (2001) ISBN:0124413528