TCR_Explore: a novel webtool for T cell receptor repertoire analysis

Abstract

AbstractT cells expressing either alpha-beta or gamma-delta T cell receptors (TCR) are critical sentinels of the adaptive immune system, with receptor diversity being essential for protective immunity against a broad array of pathogens and agents. Programs available to profile TCR clonotypic signatures can be limiting for users with no coding expertise. Current analytical pipelines can be inefficient due to manual processing steps, open to data transcription errors and have multiple analytical tools with unique inputs that require coding expertise. Here we present a bespoke webtool designed for users irrespective of coding expertise, coined ‘TCR_Explore’, incorporating automated quality control steps that generates a single output file for creation of flexible and publication ready figures. TCR_Explore will elevate a user’s capacity to undertake in-depth TCR repertoire analysis of both new and pre-existing datasets for identification of T cell clonotypes associated with health and disease. The web application is located athttps://tcr-explore.erc.monash.edufor users to interactively explore TCR repertoire datasets.Key PointsBespoke program for non-specialists in computerised methodologies for deep exploration of TCR repertoire analysisAutomated QC and analysis pipelines for Sanger based TCR sequencing coupled with immunophenotyping, with the capacity for integration of other sequencing platform outputsAutomated summary processes to aid data visualisation and generation of publication-ready graphical displays