Generating antibody diversity

With one exception, all the mechanisms used by B cells to generate antibody diversity are also used by T cells to generate T-cell receptor diversity. The one mechanism that does not appear to operate in T-cell receptor diversification is somatic hypermutation. This is presumably because mutation would be likely to generate killer T cells that would wantonly attack self-molecules. This is much less of a problem for B cells, since most self-reactive B cells could not be activated without the aid of specific helper T cells. 

Victor, K.D. Capra, J.D. (1994). An apparently common mechanism of generating antibody diversity length variation of the VL-JL junction. Mol. Immunol. 31,39-46. 

Instruction. Before the mechanism for generating antibody diversity had been established, a mechanism based on protein folding around an antigen was proposed, primarily by Linus Pauling. In this model, antibodies that had different specificities had the same amino acid sequence but were folded in different ways. Propose a test of this model. 

See also Mechanisms of Protein Mutation, Antibody Structure, Clonal Selection Theory, Gene Rearrangements (from Chapter 25), Generating Antibody Diversity (from Chapter 25)... 

Immunoglobulin Synthesis Generating Antibody Diversity (Figure 25.32, Figure 25.33)... 

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