Evolutionarily conserved and divergent regions of the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene: a comparative analysis.

ABSTRACT: During T cell differentiation, medullary thymic epithelial cells (MTEC) expose developing T cells to tissue-specific antigens. MTEC expression of such self-antigens requires the transcription factor autoimmune regulator (Aire). In mammals, defects in aire result in multi-tissue, T cell-mediated autoimmunity. Because the T cell receptor repertoire is randomly generated and extremely diverse in all jawed vertebrates, it is likely that an aire-dependent T cell tolerance mechanism also exists in nonmammalian vertebrates. We have isolated aire genes from animals in all gnathostome classes except the cartilaginous fish by a combination of molecular techniques and scanning of expressed sequence tags and genomic databases. The deduced amino acid sequences of Aire were compared among mouse, human,

SUBMITTER: Saltis M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7039057 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature