The adaptive immune receptor repertoire (AIRR) - the collection of an individual’s B-cell and T-cell receptors (BCRs and TCRs, respectively) - encodes cumulative immune history and is shaped by both germline genetics and environmental exposures. Skewed repertoires have been linked to infections, vaccination responses and autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease (CeD) where biased usage of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor g...

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a rare autoimmune blistering disease mediated by pathogenic autoantibodies. Although both HLA and non-HLA loci contribute to disease susceptibility, their combined roles in immune regulation remain incompletely understood. This study investigated the joint contribution of HLA-DRB1 and FCGR2B variants to PV susceptibility within an integrative immunogenetic framework. Genotype data from 286 individual...

The humoral immune response relies on a diverse antibody repertoire, which is expanded through processes such as somatic hypermutation, class-switch recombination and gene conversion. These processes are primarily mediated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). Gene conversion generates diversity in immunoglobulin heavy and light chains (IGHVs) in species such as chickens and rabbits, though it has not been widely stu...

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system underpins allorecognition and shapes the response to infection, autoimmunity, and treatment response. Technological advances from serology to next-generation sequencing now enable full-gene characterization and four-field HLA nomenclature, while artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming the data generation, interpretation, and clinical use. This review summarize...

Within the bovine immune response, a distinct type of immunoglobulin (Ig), known as ultralong complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) antibodies, coexists alongside canonical Igs. These ultralong heavy chains (HC) feature a remarkable structure with a lengthened CDR3 of the heavy chain (CDR H3), allowing them to adopt either a smaller and more extended paratope than canonical antibodies. However, very little is known about...

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a gene-dense genomic region essential to adaptive immunity, exhibiting both conserved features and lineage-specific rearrangements across jawed vertebrates. Amphibians, as basal tetrapods, offer critical insights into MHC evolution; however, research has largely focused on anurans (e.g., Xenopus ), while urodeles remain understudied, primarily due to their exceptionally large genom...