B-CELL ONTOGENY IN CHICKEN

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. C127  (6) , 931-+
Abstract
Individual bursal stem cells may give rise to multiple clones of B[bone marrow-derived] lymphocytes by a preprogrammed sequence of variable (V) region genes. The alternate hypothesis that each stem cell gives rise to 1 B cell expressing but 1 set of VH genes could only fit if the additional assumption is made that each stem cell is preprogrammed to give rise to a unique B-cell clonotype at a fixed time during development. Since the pattern of expression of clonotypic diversity brought about by modifying the exposure to antigens and random somatic mutations would seem an inefficient mechanism for systematic generation of the diversity, the possibility of a genetic mechanism involving an orderly pairing of germ-line VH and VL genes is presented. The V-region diversity is generated first and Ig[immunoglobin]-class diversity is secondarily expressed within each clone by a switch mechanism for the sequential expression of CH genes.

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