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Unique Features of the Antibody Problem

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The Antibody Enigma

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Abstract

Information obtained in the serologic and structural studies described in the previous chapters revealed several striking features of antibodies and the genes that encode them. First of all, it became obvious that there was no known precedent for the immune system. No other biologic process requires the synthesis, on demand, of numerous large molecules with diverse binding properties. There have been attempts to equate olfaction or the general function of the nervous system to the immune system but these are not appropriate comparisons because these systems are not known to use large numbers of structurally distinct proteins in their functionings. Other multigene families such as those encoding ribosomal RNA or histones are required to carry out fixed functions rather than maintain the ability to generate diversity. Although there are a number of similarities between immunoglobulins and proteins encoded at the major histocompatibility complex, the analogy does not include a similar type of diversity.

Article Note

Confusion is just a local view of things working out in general.

—John Updike (Rabbit Redux)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Thomas J. Kindt

  2. University of Texas Health Science Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

    J. Donald Capra

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  1. Thomas J. Kindt
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  2. J. Donald Capra
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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York

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Kindt, T.J., Capra, J.D. (1984). Unique Features of the Antibody Problem. In: The Antibody Enigma. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4676-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4676-0_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-4678-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-4676-0

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