Human T-Cell γ Chain Genes: Organization, Diversity, and Rearrangement

The human T-cell γ chain genes have been characterized in an attempt to better understand their role in immune response. These immunoglobulin-like genes are encoded in the genome in variable, joining, and constant segments. The human γ genes include at least six variable region genes, two joining segments, and two constantregion genes in germline DNA. Variable and joining segments recombine during the development of T cells to form rearranged genes. The diversity of human γ genes produced by this recombinational mechanism is greater than that produced by the murine genome but is more limited than that of other immunoglobulin-like genes.