Article
Dual enigma of somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin variable genes: targeting and mechanism.
Immunological reviews - 1 Apr 1998
Winter D B, Gearhart P J
Abstract excerpt
The immunoglobulin loci are uniquely unstable regions of the genome which undergo as much mutation and selection in a matter of days as a species can undergo in generations of evolution. We have studied the mutational pattern and targeting of this unusual hypermutation process over the past 16 years. The pattern of somatic mutations in rearranged variable (V) genes differs from the pattern of meiotic mutations,...
Topics
- Animals
- Antibody Diversity
- Gene Targeting
- Genes, Immunoglobulin
- Humans
- Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains
- Immunoglobulin Variable Region
- Introns
- Meiosis
- Mutation
- Promoter Regions, Genetic