Lack of prominent peptide-major histocompatibility complex features limits repertoire diversity in virus-specific CD8 T cell populations

Abstract

Using both 'reverse genetics' and structural analysis, we have examined the in vivo relationship between antigenicity and T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity. Influenza A virus infection of C57BL/6 mice induces profoundly different TCR repertoires specific for the nucleoprotein peptide of amino acids 366-374 (NP366) and the acid polymerase peptide of amino acids 224-233 (PA224) presented by H-2Db. Here we show the H-2Db-NP366 complex with a 'featureless' structure selected a limited TCR repertoire characterized by 'public' TCR usage. In contrast, the prominent H-2Db-PA224 complex selected diverse, individually 'private' TCR repertoires. Substitution of the arginine at position 7 of PA..