{"doi":"10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107338","title":"MAIT cell-MR1 reactivity is highly conserved across multiple divergent species","abstract":"Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are a subset of unconventional T cells that recognize small molecule metabolites presented by major histocompatibility complex class I related protein 1 (MR1), via an αβ T cell receptor (TCR). MAIT TCRs feature an essentially invariant TCR α-chain, which is highly conserved between mammals. Similarly, MR1 is the most highly conserved major histocompatibility complex-I-like molecule. This extreme conservation, including the mode of interaction between the MAIT TCR and MR1, has been shown to allow for species-mismatched reactivities unique in T cell biology, thereby allowing the use of selected species-mismatched MR1-antigen (MR1-Ag) tetramers in comparative immunology studies. However, the pattern of cross-reactivity of species-mismatched MR1-Ag tetramers in identifying MAIT cells in diverse species has not been formally assessed. We developed novel cattle and pig MR1-Ag tetramers and utilized these alongside previously developed human, mouse, and pig-tailed macaque MR1-Ag tetramers to characterize cross-species tetramer reactivities. MR1-Ag tetramers from each species identified T cell populations in distantly related species with specificity that was comparable to species-matched MR1-Ag tetramers. However, there were subtle differences in staining characteristics with practical implications for the accurate identification of MAIT cells. Pig MR1 is sufficiently conserved across species that pig MR1-Ag tetramers identified MAIT cells from the other species. However, MAIT cells in pigs were at the limits of phenotypic detection. In the absence of sheep MR1-Ag tetramers, a MAIT cell population in sheep blood was identified phenotypically, utilizing species-mismatched MR1-Ag tetramers. Collectively, our results validate the use and define the limitations of species-mismatched MR1-Ag tetramers in comparative immunology studies.","journal":"Journal of Biological Chemistry","year":2024,"id":431089,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9555,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":486883,"name":"Timothy Connelley","orcid":"0000-0002-3313-5441","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":656438,"name":"Sophie Morgan","orcid":"0000-0003-0298-7614","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":654811,"name":"Troi Pediongco","orcid":"0000-0002-0599-8119","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1234902,"name":"S. Jayaraman","orcid":"0000-0003-1524-2232","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":473627,"name":"Jennifer A. Juno","orcid":"0000-0002-9072-1017","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":654813,"name":"Bronwyn S. Meehan","orcid":"0000-0001-7368-2979","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1235403,"name":"Phoebe M. Dewar","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1234903,"name":"Emmanuel A. Maze","orcid":"0000-0003-4632-6324","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1234904,"name":"Eduard O. Roos","orcid":"0000-0002-3679-4995","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":884961,"name":"Basudev Paudyal","orcid":"0000-0001-6068-019X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293172,"name":"Jeffrey Y. W. Mak","orcid":"0000-0002-8011-4539","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293173,"name":"Ligong Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-2693-1896","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":293174,"name":"David P. Fairlie","orcid":"0000-0002-7856-8566","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":654808,"name":"Huimeng Wang","orcid":"0000-0003-0226-3982","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":256184,"name":"Alexandra J. Corbett","orcid":"0000-0003-1618-4337","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":256187,"name":"James McCluskey","orcid":"0000-0002-8597-815X","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486882,"name":"Lindert Benedictus","orcid":"0000-0001-7605-2710","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":461109,"name":"Elma Tchilian","orcid":"0000-0002-4869-5118","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106117,"name":"Paul Klenerman","orcid":"0000-0003-4307-9161","position":19,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":499364,"name":"Sidonia B. G. Eckle","orcid":"0000-0003-0766-171X","position":20,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":624083,"name":"Matthew Edmans","orcid":"0000-0002-2580-6620","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":104,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:59:25.642507Z","pmid":"38705391","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}