Need help understanding immuno literature terms

[gfdsa146]

I'm taking my first graduate/phd level immunology course. My prof has made it a task to assign a recently published paper to the class to present every week. He basically just hands us the paper and it's up to us to understand it. I have a lot of trouble in understanding some of the terms that, only if heard by an immunologist, would instantly know what it's experimental purpose is. My prof is strongly advocating a hands off sort of learning so I thought maybe you guys might be willing to help me out.

 

This is the paper we got for this week http://www.jimmunol.org/content/184/5/2476.abstract

 

What are LATY163F mice? What experimental purpose do they usually serve in an immunology study?

 

What is a HY transgenic TCR model? What is HY for that matter? What is it used for experimentally?

[qqqqq]

we are not allowed to see the whole article...

[ardent]

Since I can't read the whole article, I guess HY is the name of a gene which was inserted in a TCR model. It could be used as the experimental or control "group."

[CharonY]

My advice is to follow up the papers that have been cited as well as search for reviews on that particular area (alternatively, get a good textbook and check out the appendix). Especially pay attention to the references in the introduction. I am not an immunologist, but based on the abstract we can conclude that the mouse line in question has a mutation at the indicated amino acid position of LAT. This inhibits the interaction with the PLC-γ1 protein resulting in the described developmental effects. They created another mouse line in which this problem was circumvented to study the interaction with LAT and PLC-γ1 without the developmental interference.

HY is an antigen that is recognized by TCR. From the little what I remember the system played a role during T-cell selection.

[gfdsa146]

My advice is to follow up the papers that have been cited as well as search for reviews on that particular area (alternatively, get a good textbook and check out the appendix).

 

Reviews are hard to access since my home computer isn't suscribed to any journals.

 

I do actually read these papers with a textbook next to me. Two, in fact. Janeway's Immunobiology and Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry. They both help to some degree but there are still terms, like LAT-Y136F mice and the HY thing, that are really only practical experimental terms and don't come up much in theory [and therefore not in these textbooks]. I use google too before posting it here; I'm obviously not asking for you guys to do my homework for me.

 

I figure that LAT is the mutation introduced, but what is a Y136F mouse

 

Here's a download link - https://www.yousendit.com/download/T2pIMWZQcGtwcFh2Wmc9PQ

 

Haha! I figured out what LATY136F mice are! They're mice that have a mutation at the 136th amino acid, which is normally a tyrosine (Y), in their LAT protein! I'm guessing the F means that the mutation changed Y136 to an F136. Y136 is a binding site for PLC-gamma

 

Haha! I figured out what LATY136F mice are! They're mice that have a mutation at the 136th amino acid, which is normally a tyrosine (Y), in their LAT protein! I'm guessing the F means that the mutation changed Y136 to an F136. Y136 is a binding site for PLC-gamma

Edited February 25, 2011 by gfdsa146

[CharonY]

Excellent. That was what I meant with the mutation at the indicated position. Regarding journals, isn't there a way to access the journals that your uni is subscribed to via proxy? Often the library website has links for that.

 

For HY, check male antigen.

[gfdsa146]

I've tried doing it through my college's library website. Due to horrible design, it doesn't work.