Naming of immunoglobulin and T cell receptor genes is currently based on their perceived relative location in the genome. This principle is very attractive but greatly challenged by recent genomic studies as we become aware of the extensive structural diversity of these loci. In particular when we intend to name genes beyond the well-studied human case (which nevertheless suffers from challenges in this respect) this grows into a serious problem.
In a recent publication, Professor Mats Ohlin of the Department of Immunotechnology and Dr. Ayelet Peres (Yale University) discuss these matters and underscores the need for a non-positional naming structure until we have sufficient knowledge of diversity of the relevant loci in the species under investigation.