Generation of antibody diversity in rabbits

✍ Scribed by Katherine L Knight; Candace R Winstead

• Book ID: 104358759
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 438 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/s0952-7915(97)80140-9

✦ Synopsis

Most rabbit B lymphocytes use the same V H gene in V(D)J gene rearrangements and undergo somatic diversification by gene conversion and hypermutation. Recent experiments have shown that V(D)J genes in essentially all rabbit B cells diversify shortly after birth and that this diversification occurs in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. Still to be determined is whether this diversification is developmentally programmed or is driven by exogenous microbial antigens.