IMGT DomainGapAlign

IMGT DomainGapAlign analyzes amino acid sequences of variable (V), constant (C), and groove (G) domains of immunoglobulins (IG), T cell receptors (TR), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, and related immune proteins to provide standardized domain delimitation, IMGT unique numbering, gene and allele identification, and sequence annotation for immunogenetics and immunoinformatics.

Key Features:

• Domain-Specific Analysis: Aligns and analyzes amino acid sequences by domain (V, C, G) for IG, TR, MHC and related immune proteins to inform structural and functional interpretation.
• IMGT-ONTOLOGY Standardization: Applies IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts for standardized keyword identification, labeling, nomenclature classification, and IMGT unique numbering.
• IMGT Colliers de Perles Visualization: Provides standardized visualization through IMGT Colliers de Perles to represent domain organization and topology.
• Integration with 3D Structure Data: Annotates sequences according to IMGT criteria and integrates with IMGT/3Dstructure-DB for gene/allele identification, region and domain delimitations, and contact analysis.
• Support for Antibody Engineering Concepts: Defines FR-IMGT and CDR-IMGT regions to support complementarity determining region (CDR) grafting, antibody engineering, humanization design, and fusion protein development.
• NGS and Repertoire Analysis Compatibility: Supports analysis of genomic and expressed IG and TR repertoires including next-generation sequencing (NGS) high-throughput data and mutation analysis in clinical contexts such as leukemia and lymphoma.

Scientific Applications:

• Annotation of Immune Receptor Sequences: Provides standardized region and domain delimitation and IMGT unique numbering for IG, TR, MHC and related proteins to enable consistent sequence annotation.
• Structure–Sequence Integration: Enables mapping of sequence annotations onto three-dimensional structures via integration with IMGT/3Dstructure-DB for contact and structural analyses.
• Antibody Engineering and Humanization: Facilitates CDR grafting and design by precisely defining FR-IMGT and CDR-IMGT regions for therapeutic antibody and fusion protein development.
• Repertoire and Clinical Mutation Analysis: Supports analysis of genomic and expressed IG/TR repertoires from NGS datasets and mutation analysis in diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma.

Methodology:

Aligns amino acid sequences per domain using IMGT-ONTOLOGY axioms to delimit regions and domains, applies IMGT unique numbering for annotation, and links sequence annotations to IMGT/3Dstructure-DB for structural contact analysis.