Detection of polymorphisms in nonhuman primate MR-1 alleles — ASN Events

Detection of polymorphisms in nonhuman primate MR-1 alleles (#177)

Shelby O'Connor 1 , Amy Ellis 1 , Nadean Kannal 1 , Alexis Balgeman 1
  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States

The MHC-like molecule, MR-1, presents vitamin metabolites to Mucosal Associated Invariant T cells. It has been described that MR-1 has limited described polymorphisms among humans. However, it is known that the sequence of MR-1 is different in nonhuman primates, compared to humans. In this study, we wanted to identify polymorphisms in MR-1 alleles from nonhuman primates. We sequenced MR-1 alleles from different populations of cynomolgus macaques (n=25), rhesus macaques (n=9), and marmosets. We found 8 different alleles across all of these populations. We expressed these alleles in 293T cells and each allele could be loaded with 6-formylpterin (6-FP) and presented on the surface. Although the differences across alleles were not in TCR contact or antigen binding sites, these variant sites could have other functional implications when loaded with ligands from different pathogens. In conclusion, we find that MR-1 does have different allele variants, and their function should be explored further in the future.