pmTR Database: Population Matched (PM) Germline Allelic Variants of T-Cell Receptor ( <i>TR</i>) Loci

Abstract

T-cell receptor (TR) germline allele sequences are arranged, organized and made available to the research community by the IMGT database. This state-of-the-art database, however, does not provide information regarding population speci city and allelic frequencies of the four human TR loci (TRA, TRB, TRG and TRD). The speci city of allelic variants to different human populations can, however, be a rich source of information when studying the genetic basis of population-speci c immune responses in disease and in vaccination. To make TR germline alleles available for such population-speci c studies, we meticulously identi ed true germline alleles enriched with complete TR allele sequences and their frequencies across 26 different human populations, pro led by "1,000 Genomes data". We identi ed 205 TRAV, 249 TRBV, 16 TRGV and 5 TRDV germline alleles supported by at least four haplotypes (= minimum of two unrelated individuals). The diversity of germline allelic variants in the TR loci is highest in Africans, while the majority of the Non-African alleles are speci c to the Asian populations, suggesting a diverse pro le of TR germline alleles in different human populations. Interestingly, the alleles known in the IMGT database are frequent and common across all ve super-populations. We believe that this new set of genuine germline TR sequences represents a valuable new resource which we have made available through the new population-matched TR (pmTR) database, accessible via https://pmtrig.lumc.nl/.