De novo Inference of Diversity Genes and Analysis of Non-canonical V(DD)J Recombination in Immunoglobulins

Abstract

The V(D)J recombination forms the immunoglobulin genes by joining the variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) germline genes. Since variations in germline genes have been linked to various diseases, personalized immunogenomics aims at finding alleles of germline genes across various patients. Although recent studies described algorithms for de novo inference of V and J genes from immunosequencing data, they stopped short of solving a more difficult problem of reconstructing D genes that form the highly divergent CDR3 regions and provide the most important contribution to the antigen binding. We present the IgScout algorithm for de novo D gene reconstruction and apply it to reveal new alleles of human D genes and previously unknown D genes in camel, an important model organism in immunology. We further analyze non-canonical V(DD)J recombination that results in unusually long CDR3s with tandem fused IGHD genes and thus expands the diversity of the antibody repertoires. We demonstrate that tandem CDR3s represent a consistent and functional feature of all analyzed immunosequencing datasets, reveal ultra-long CDR3s, and shed light on the mechanism responsible for their formation.