Skip to main
An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Concept information

Término preferido

antibody diversity

Tipo

  • Topic

Definición

  • Information The phenomenon of immense variability characteristic of antibodies. It enables the immune system to react specifically against the essentially unlimited kinds of antigens it encounters. Antibody diversity is accounted for by three main theories: (1) the Germ Line Theory, which holds that each antibody-producing cell has genes coding for all possible antibody specificities, but expresses only the one stimulated by antigen; (2) the Somatic Mutation Theory, which holds that antibody-producing cells contain only a few genes, which produce antibody diversity by mutation; and (3) the Gene Rearrangement Theory, which holds that antibody diversity is generated by the rearrangement of immunoglobulin variable region gene segments during the differentiation of the antibody-producing cells.

Concepto genérico

Sinónimos

  • germ line theory
  • immunoglobulin diversity

En otras lenguas

URI

https://lod.nal.usda.gov/nalt/217635

Descargue este concepto:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD Creado 4/6/14, última modificación 12/4/17