Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

IMGT, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system ( http://www.imgt.org ), was created in 1989 by Marie-Paule Lefranc (Université de Montpellier and CNRS) to manage the huge diversity of the antigen receptors, immunoglobulins (IG) or antibodies, and T cell receptors (TR). The founding of IMGT marked the advent of immunoinformatics, which emerged at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. Standardized sequence and structure analysis of antibody using IMGT databases and tools allow one to bridge, for the first time, the gap between antibody sequences and three-dimensional (3D) structures. This is achieved through the IMGT Scientific chart rules, based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts of classification (IMGT gene and allele nomenclature), description (IMGT standardized labels), and numerotation (IMGT unique numbering and IMGT Collier de Perles). IMGT is acknowledged as the global reference for immunogenetics and immunoinformatics, and its standards are particularly useful for antibody engineering and humanization. IMGT databases for antibody nucleotide sequences and genes include IMGT/LIGM-DB and IMGT/GENE-DB, respectively, and nucleotide sequence analysis is performed by the IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/JunctionAnalysis tools and for NGS by IMGT/HighV-QUEST. In this chapter, we focus on IMGT databases and tools for amino acid sequences, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structures: the IMGT/DomainGapAlign and IMGT Collier de Perles tools and the IMGT/2Dstructure-DB and IMGT/3Dstructure-DB database. IMGT/mAb-DB provides the query interface for monoclonal antibodies (mAb), fusion proteins for immune applications (FPIA), and composite proteins for clinical applications (CPCA) and related proteins of interest (RPI) and links to the proposed and recommended lists of the World Health Organization International Nonproprietary Name (WHO INN) programme, to IMGT/2Dstructure-DB for amino acid sequences, and to IMGT/3Dstructure-DB and its associated tools (IMGT/StructuralQuery, IMGT/DomainSuperimpose) for crystallized antibodies.

IMGT(®), the international ImMunoGeneTics information system(®) (http://www.imgt.org), was created in 1989 to manage the huge diversity of the antigen receptors, immunoglobulins (IG) or antibodies, and T cell receptors (TR). Standardized sequence and structure analysis of antibody using IMGT(®) databases and tools allows one to bridge, for the first time, the gap between antibody sequences and three-dimensional (3D) structures. This is achieved through the IMGT Scientific chart rules, based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts of classification (IMGT gene and allele nomenclature), description (IMGT standardized labels), and numerotation (IMGT unique numbering and IMGT Colliers de Perles). IMGT(®) is the international reference for immunogenetics and immunoinformatics and its standards are particularly useful for antibody humanization and evaluation of immunogenicity. IMGT(®) databases for antibody nucleotide sequences and genes include IMGT/LIGM-DB and IMGT/GENE-DB, respectively, whereas nucleotide sequence analysis is performed by the IMGT/V-QUEST, IMGT/HighV-QUEST, and IMGT/JunctionAnalysis tools. In this chapter, we focus on IMGT(®) databases and tools for amino acid sequences, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structures: the IMGT/DomainGapAlign and IMGT/Collier-de-Perles tools, the IMGT/2Dstructure-DB database for amino acid sequences of monoclonal antibodies (mAb, suffix -mab) and fusion proteins for immune applications (FPIA, suffix -cept) of the World Health Organization/International Nonproprietary Name (WHO/INN) programme and other proteins of interest, and the IMGT/3Dstructure-DB database for crystallized antibodies and its associated tools (IMGT/StructuralQuery, IMGT/DomainSuperimpose).

IMGT/3Dstructure-DB is the three-dimensional (3D) structure database of IMGT, the international ImMunoGenetics information system that is acknowledged as the global reference in immunogenetics and immunoinformatics. IMGT/3Dstructure-DB contains 3D structures of immunoglobulins (IG) or antibodies, T cell receptors (TR), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, antigen receptor/antigen complexes (IG/Ag, TR/peptide/MHC) of vertebrates; 3D structures of related proteins of the immune system (RPI) of vertebrates and invertebrates, belonging to the immunoglobulin and MHC superfamilies (IgSF and MhcSF, respectively) and found in complexes with IG, TR or MHC. IMGT/3Dstructure-DB data are annotated according to the IMGT criteria, using IMGT/DomainGapAlign, and based on the IMGT-ONTOLOGY concepts and axioms. IMGT/3Dstructure-DB provides IMGT gene and allele identification (CLASSIFICATION), region and domain delimitations (DESCRIPTION), amino acid positions according to the IMGT unique numbering (NUMEROTATION) that are used in IMGT/3Dstructure-DB cards, results of contact analysis and renumbered flat files. In its Web version, the IMGT/DomainGapAlign tool analyses amino acid sequences, per domain. Coupled to the IMGT/Collier-de-Perles tool, it provides an invaluable help for antibody engineering and humanization design based on complementarity determining region (CDR) grafting as it precisely defines the standardized framework regions (FR-IMGT) and CDR-IMGT. IMGT/3Dstructure-DB and IMGT/DomainGapAlign are freely available at http://www.imgt.org.