Hierarchy of T cell antigen receptor assembly

The formation of partial complexes in an African green monkey kidney cell line (COS cells) has been used to examine assembly of newly synthesized T cell antigen receptor (TCR) chains. The identification of assembly interactions between multiple subunits and the formation of higher order subcomplexes has led to the development of a model for the hierarchy of subunit assembly leading to a complete TCR. These assembly interactions suggest likely nearest neighbour relationships in the assembling structure and probably reflect the quarternary structure of the TCR complex. This may be important when examining the association of other molecules with TCR proteins or when trying to discern structural components involved with signal transduction.