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New publication: usage of multiple diversity genes in the delta chain of the TCR

In the canonical model of VDJ recombination, a single diversity (D) gene is incorporated into the complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) to generate a T cell receptor δ (TCRδ; TRD) or TCRβ (TRB) chain. In a new publication in The Journal of Immunology , Moosa Rezwani, from the team of David Vermijlen, and colleagues show that this model does not fully capture TCRδ biology: by analysing more than 2.7 million TRD CDR3 sequences across six mammalian species, they reveal that incorporation of more than one D gene in the same CDR3 is strikingly frequent and evolutionarily conserved in TCRδ, while remaining minimal in TCRβ CDR3s. The study further shows that this process is regulated by genomic design, recombination constraints, and developmental timing, closely associating multiple D gene incorporation with γδ T cell biology.

Original article: Incorporation of multiple diversity genes in the TCRδ chain is highly regulated and evolutionarily conserved, by Rezwani et al
June 29th 2026 - 15:28