Somatic generation of antibody diversity

✍ Scribed by Tonegawa, Susumu

• Book ID: 109730548
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 847 KB
• Volume: 302
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• DOI: 10.1038/302575a0

✦ Synopsis

In the genome of a germ-line cell, the genetic information for an immunoglobulin polypeptide chain is contained in multiple gene segments scattered along a chromosome. During the development of bone marrow-derived lymphocytes, these gene segments are assembled by recombination which leads to the formation of a complete gene. In addition, mutations are somatically introduced at a high rate into the amino-terminal region. Both somatic recombination and mutation contribute greatly to an increase in the diversity of antibody synthesized by a single organism.