Epitope-specific TCRβ repertoire diversity imparts no functional advantage on the CD8 T cell response to cognate viral peptides

Abstract

TCR repertoire diversity has been convincingly shown to facilitate responsiveness of CD8+ T cell populations to mutant virus peptides, thereby safeguarding against viral escape. However, the impact of repertoire diversity on the functionality of the CD8+ T cell response to cognate peptide-MHC class I complex (pMHC) recognition remains unclear. Here, we have compared TCRβ chain repertoires of three influenza A epitope-specific CD8+ T cell responses in C57BL/6 (B6) mice: DbNP 366-374, DbPA224-233, and a recently described epitope derived from the +1 reading frame of the influenza viral polymerase B subunit (residues 62-70) (DbPB1-F262). Corresponding to the relative antigenicity of the respect..