![]() ![]() The adaptive immune response is characterized by a remarkable immune specificity and memory, which are the properties of the B and T cells owing to an extreme diversity of their antigen receptors. Understanding the basis for adaptive immunity, at the level of cell populations, individual cells, and molecules, has been a major focus of immunology in the past century ( 6, 7). The adaptive immune response was acquired by jawed vertebrates (or gnathostomata) more than 450 million years ago and is found in all extant jawed vertebrate species from fishes to humans. This major breakthrough allowed genes and data of the complex and highly diversified adaptive immune responses to be managed in genomic databases and tools. For the first time, immunoglobulin (IG) or antibody and T cell receptor (TR) variable (V), diversity (D), joining (J), and constant (C) genes were officially recognized as “genes” as well as the conventional genes ( 2– 5). The founding of IMGT ® marked the advent of immunoinformatics, a new science, which emerged at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. IMGT ®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system ® 1 ( 1), was created in 1989 by Marie-Paule Lefranc at Montpellier, France (CNRS and Université Montpellier 2). They include, for example IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/JunctionAnalysis for nucleotide sequence analysis and their high-throughput version IMGT/HighV-QUEST for next-generation sequencing (500,000 sequences per batch), IMGT/DomainGapAlign for amino acid sequence analysis of IG and TR variable and constant domains and of MH groove domains, IMGT/3Dstructure-DB for 3D structures, contact analysis and paratope/epitope interactions of IG/antigen and TR/peptide-MH complexes and IMGT/mAb-DB interface for therapeutic antibodies and fusion proteins for immune applications (FPIA). Tools and databases are used in basic, veterinary, and medical research, in clinical applications (mutation analysis in leukemia and lymphoma) and in antibody engineering and humanization. IMGT ® comprises seven databases, 15,000 pages of web resources, and 17 tools, and provides a high-quality and integrated system for the analysis of the genomic and expressed IG and TR repertoire of the adaptive immune responses. The concepts include the IMGT ® standardized keywords (concepts of identification), IMGT ® standardized labels (concepts of description), IMGT ® standardized nomenclature (concepts of classification), IMGT unique numbering, and IMGT Colliers de Perles (concepts of numerotation). IMGT ® has been built on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY axioms and concepts, which bridged the gap between genes, sequences, and three-dimensional (3D) structures. IMGT ® is specialized in the immunoglobulins (IG) or antibodies, T cell receptors (TR), major histocompatibility (MH), and proteins of the IgSF and MhSF superfamilies. By its creation in 1989, IMGT ® marked the advent of immunoinformatics, which emerged at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. IMGT ®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system ® 1, (CNRS and Université Montpellier 2) is the global reference in immunogenetics and immunoinformatics. The International ImMunoGenetics Information System ® (IMGT ®), Laboratoire d’ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire (LIGM), Institut de Génétique Humaine, UPR CNRS, Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France. ![]()
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