IMGT® and 30 Years of Immunoinformatics Insight in Antibody V and C Domain Structure and Function

Marie-Paule Lefranc1, Gérard Lefranc2

  • 1IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system®, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Laboratoire d'ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire LIGM, Institut de Génétique Humaine IGH, UMR 9002 CNRS-UM, 141 rue de la Cardonille, 34396 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France. Marie-Paule.Lefranc@igh.cnrs.fr.

At the 10th Human Genome Mapping (HGM10) Workshop, in New Haven, 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 were the conventional genes. Under these HGM auspices, IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system®, was created in June 1989 at Montpellier (University of Montpellier and CNRS). The creation of IMGT® marked the birth of immunoinformatics, a new science, at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. The accuracy and the consistency between genes and alleles, sequences, and three-dimensional (3D) structures are based on the IMGT Scientific chart rules generated from the IMGT-ONTOLOGY axioms and concepts: IMGT standardized keywords (IDENTIFICATION), IMGT gene and allele nomenclature (CLASSIFICATION), IMGT standardized labels (DESCRIPTION), IMGT unique numbering and IMGT Collier de Perles (NUMEROTATION). These concepts provide IMGT® immunoinformatics insights for antibody V and C domain structure and function, used for the standardized description in IMGT® web resources, databases and tools, immune repertoires analysis, single cell and/or high-throughput sequencing (HTS, NGS), antibody humanization, and antibody engineering in relation with effector properties.

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