Organization of the human T cell receptor-alpha chain locus

There are 49 V alpha genes, of which 7 are pseudogenes in some haplotypes. Five of these V alpha genes may also recombine with gene segments in the delta-chain locus. One V delta gene is also in the V alpha region. There are 61 J alpha gene segments, of which 3 are pseudogenes, and 8 are not utilized, although they contain open reading frames (ORFs). There is a single C alpha gene.