Concept
Diversity of Antibodies and DNA segments
- Antigens (foreign substance) stimulate creation of preexisting B cell the antibodies which recognize the antigen.
- The genes that code for antibodies are limited – so where does the diversity come from?
- The antibody diversity is accounted from the genetic changes of the B lymphocytes development.
- Antibodies are coded by DNA segments: V, J and C for the light chains and V, D, J and C for the heavy chains. Because there are so many segments and many versions of these segments are possible, the possibilities for antibodies are significantly large.
- Additionally, changes occur once a B cell has encourntered an antigen and secrets antibodies.
- The B cells divide and the antibody gene mutation increases and creates a trial of nucleotides that vary (one amino acid mutations for every cell generation) and this allows for antigen specificity of the antibody to be fine tuned over many cell generations. This antigen-binding affinity increases with the B cell proliferation.
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Updated 2021-04-04
Tags
Biochemistry
Biomedical Sciences