Lack of diversity in T cell receptor sequencing studies

Abstract

Recent advancement from low-throughput sequencing techniques to high-throughput sequencing gives the public more efficient ways to acquire human adaptive immune receptor repertoire sequences (AIRR-seq). The advanced high-throughput sequencing techniques allow scientists to comprehensively examine and characterize the T cell receptors’ and B cell receptors’ genetic sequences efficiently. The development of multi-powerful platforms in AIRR-seq studies and advanced bioinformatic tools also boosts the AIRR community’s richness. However, although high-throughput sequencing technologies have been well-developed, most AIRR-seq studies have not taken ancestries or populations in their research into consideration. In the study, we investigate the ancestry distribution in the T cell receptor sequencing(TCR-seq) studies to initial estimate the ancestry distribution in the open AIRR-seq studies. The result disclosed that 84.08% of the studies with reported ancestries are conducted under European ancestries, which omit other populational ancestries’ diversity in the open TCR-Seq studies.