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BioLiP E. coli GLASS GPCR-HGmod GPCR-RD GPCR-EXP Tara-3D TM-fold DECOYS POTENTIAL RW/RWplus EvoEF HPSF THE-DB ADDRESS Alpaca-Antibody CASP7 CASP8 CASP9 CASP10 CASP11 CASP12 CASP13 CASP14

Heavy-chain-only antibodies (HCAbs), which are devoid of light chains, have been found naturally occurring in various species including camelids and cartilaginous fish. The variable regions of the HCAbs (VHHs) are known as the minimal natural antigen recognition units. Most immunogenetic and functional studies of HCAbs are based on case studies or a limited number of low-throughput sequencing data. A complete picture derived from more abundant high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data can help us gain deeper insights. In this study, we cloned and sequenced the full-length coding region of VHHs from non-immunized Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) via HTS. A new pipeline was developed to conduct an in-depth analysis of the HCAb repertoires. Various critical features, including the length distribution of complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3), V(D)J usage, VJ pairing, germline-specific mutation rate, and germline-specific scoring profiles (GSSPs), were systematically characterized. The quantitative data show that V(D)J usage and VHH recombination are highly biased. Interestingly, we found that the average CDR3 length of classical VHHs is longer than that of non-classical ones, whereas the mutation rates are similar in both kinds of VHHs. Finally, GSSPs were built to quantitatively describe and compare sequences that originate from each VJ pair. Overall, this study presents a comprehensive landscape of the HCAb repertoire, which can provide useful guidance for the modeling of somatic hypermutation and the design of novel functional VHHs or VHH repertoires via evolutionary profiles.


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