<span class="word">IMGT® <span class="word"><span class="changedDisabled">Nomenclature <span class="word">of <span class="word"><span class="changedDisabled">Immunoglobulins (<span class="word allCaps">IG) <spa

The immunoglobulins (IG) or antibodies and the T cell receptors (TR) are the antigen receptors of the adaptive immune responses (AIR) of the jawed vertebrates (Gnathostomata). IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system®, was created in 1989 by Marie-Paule Lefranc (Laboratoire d’ImmunoGénétique Moléculaire (LIGM), Université de Montpellier and CNRS) to deal with and to manage the huge diversity of the IG or antibodies and TR. The founding of IMGT® marked the advent of immunoinformatics, a new science which emerged at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. For the first time, the IG and TR variable (V), diversity (D), joining (J) and constant (C) genes were officially recognized as ‘genes’ as well as were the conventional genes. The IMGT-ONTOLOGY CLASSIFICA-TION axiom and the concepts of classification have generated the IMGT nomenclature and the IMGT Scientific chart rules for assigning IMGT names to IG and TR genes and alleles of Homo sapiens and of an