Publication Date:
1995-12-15
Description:
The crystal structure of the V alpha domain of a T cell antigen receptor (TCR) was determined at a resolution of 2.2 angstroms. This structure represents an immunoglobulin topology set different from those previously described. A switch in a polypeptide strand from one beta sheet to the other enables a pair of V alpha homodimers to pack together to form a tetramer, such that the homodimers are parallel to each other and all hypervariable loops face in one direction. On the basis of the observed mode of V alpha association, a model of an (alpha beta)2 TCR tetramer can be positioned relative to the major histocompatibility complex class II (alpha beta)2 tetramer with the third hypervariable loop of V alpha over the amino-terminal portion of the antigenic peptide and the corresponding loop of V beta over its carboxyl-terminal residues. TCR dimerization that is mediated by the alpha chain may contribute to the coupling of antigen recognition to signal transduction during T cell activation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fields, B A -- Ober, B -- Malchiodi, E L -- Lebedeva, M I -- Braden, B C -- Ysern, X -- Kim, J K -- Shao, X -- Ward, E S -- Mariuzza, R A -- AI31592/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- GM52801/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1995 Dec 15;270(5243):1821-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8525376" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Crystallography, X-Ray
;
Humans
;
Mice
;
Models, Molecular
;
Protein Conformation
;
Protein Folding
;
Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta/*chemistry/immunology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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