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Vanwinkle, Z. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Vanwinkle, Z. M..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

An integrated human immunoglobulin germline resource linking allele diversity to expressed repertoire structure

Human immunoglobulin (IG) loci are highly polymorphic, yet existing germline resources remain noisy and incomplete, limiting our ability to link inherited variation to antibody repertoires. Here, we integrate high-fidelity long-read genomic sequencing with matched adaptive immune receptor repertoire sequencing (AIRR-seq) to construct HUSA, a population-scale, evidence-resolved germline resource. Using a conservative allele inference framework, HUSA expands current references more than three-fold, identifying over 1300 alleles while preserving allele-level evidence provenance across genomic and repertoire data. By linking genotype and expressed repertoires within individuals, we show that coding-region similarity predicts the structure of adjacent recombination signal sequences and leader regions, revealing that IG alleles are organized as linked cis-regulatory units associated with differences in recombination context and allele usage. These results define key germline constraints shaping repertoire formation and establish a robust, genotype-aware foundation for the analysis of immune receptor repertoires.

immunology↗

A Broad Survey and Functional Analysis of Immunoglobulin Loci Variation in Rhesus Macaques

Rhesus macaques (RMs) are a vital model for studying human disease and invaluable to pre-clinical vaccine research, particularly for the study of broadly neutralizing antibody responses. Such studies require robust genetic resources for antibody-encoding genes within the immunoglobulin (IG) loci. The complexity of the IG loci has historically made them challenging to characterize accurately. To address this, we developed novel experimental and computational methodologies to generate the largest collection to date of integrated antibody repertoire and long-read genomic sequencing data in 106 Indian origin RMs. We created a comprehensive resource of IG heavy and light chain variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) alleles, as well as leader, intronic, and recombination signal sequences (RSSs), including the curation of 1474 novel alleles, unveiling tremendous diversity, and expanding existing IG allele sets by 60%. This publicly available, continually updated resource (https://vdjbase.org/reference_book/Rhesus_Macaque) provides the foundation for advancing RM immunogenomics, vaccine discovery, and translational research.

immunology↗