Fig. 1
The TCRβ repertoire displayed stability and individual-specific characteristics across time. a Experimental design of T cell sampling. b A heatmap of Jaccard indexes shows clear clustering of samples by individual. Samples of naive T cells clustered less by individual than did PBMC or memory T cell samples. Relative abundances of the 20 most abundant TCRβs (c) appeared stable through time. TCRβ abundances in PBMCs correlated within an individual across time points, including across a month (d, shared TCRβs = 33,601, Spearman rho = 0.55718, p < 10− 6), and a year (e, shared TCRβs = 25,933, Spearman rho = 0.53810, p < 10− 6), as well as across a month in naive (f, shared TCRβs = 15,873, Spearman rho = 0.37892, p < 10− 6) and memory T cells (g, shared TCRβs = 47,866, Spearman rho = 0.64934, p < 10− 6). TCRβs correlated much less across individuals (h, shared TCRβs = 5014, Spearman rho = 0.28554, p < 10− 6). Shannon alpha diversity estimate (i) and clonality (defined as 1 – Pielou’s evenness, j) of the TCRβ repertoire were consistent over time