High-throughput sequencing (HTS) prompted development of novel, refined methods of analyzing immunological repertoires (e.g. immunoglobulins, TCRs). So far, despite a decade of progress, these techniques were mainly used in research involving model species and humans.
Recently, Magdalena Migalska, Alvaro Sebastian and Jacek Radwan (Evolutionary Biology Group) published an article in Scientific Reports describing first use of HTS in TCR repertoire sequencing in a non-model mammal (the bank vole, /Myodes glareolus/). The article also presents newly developed software by the group: AmpliTCR and AmpliCDR3. Programs allow detailed quantitative and qualitative description of TCR repertoires without reference sequences. These tools should become particularly useful in the fields of comparative immunology, ecology and evolutionary biology, which often focus on non-model species.
Article: https://www.nature.com/article
AmpliTCR: http://evobiolab.biol.amu.edu.
AmpliCDR3: http://evobiolab.biol.amu.edu.