Definition
B cell epitopes, also known as antigenic determinants, are restricted parts of molecules that are recognized by immunoglobulin molecules (antibodies) either in their free form or as membrane-bound B cell receptors. B cell epitopes typically belong to one of two classes: linear (continuous or sequential) epitopes or conformational (discontinuous) epitopes. Linear epitopes are short peptides that correspond to a contiguous amino acid sequence fragment of a protein. Linear epitopes are usually identified using assays such as PEPSCAN. Consequently, current experimental methods offer little direct evidence indicating that each residue in the epitope does in fact make contact with one or more residues in the paratope (the part in the antibody that binds to the antigen). The second class of B cell epitopes is called conformational...
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EL-Manzalawy, Y., Honavar, V. (2013). B Cell Epitope Prediction. In: Dubitzky, W., Wolkenhauer, O., Cho, KH., Yokota, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Systems Biology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9863-7_88
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