Select sequencing of clonally expanded CD8⁺ T cells reveals limits to clonal expansion

To permit the recognition of antigens, T cells generate a vast diversity of T cell receptor (TCR) sequences. Upon binding of the TCR to an antigen-MHC complex, T cells clonally expand to establish an immune response. To study antigen-specific T cell clonality, we have developed a method that allows selection of rare cells, based on RNA expression, before in-depth scRNA-seq (named SELECT-seq). We applied SELECT-seq to collect both TCR sequences and then transcriptomes from single cells of peripheral blood lymphocytes activated by a Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) lysate. TCR sequence analysis allowed us to preferentially select expanded conventional CD8⁺ T cells as well as invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells and mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. The iNKT and MAIT cells have a highly similar transcriptional pattern, indicating that they carry out similar immunological functions and differ considerably from conventional CD8⁺ T cells. While there is no relationship between expression profiles and clonal expansion in iNKT or MAIT cells, highly expanded conventional CD8⁺ T cells down-regulate the interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor alpha (IL2RA, or CD25) protein and show signs of senescence. This suggests inherent limits to clonal expansion that act to diversify the T cell response repertoire.