recombinational germline theory
- recombinational germline theory
- a theory of the origin of antibody diversity, according to which the DNA coding for a single immunoglobulin chain is assembled by a somatic recombinational event from two genes, one a unique constant region gene and the other one of several million variable region genes. The first theory to propose that two genes might code for a single polypeptide chain, it is now known to be essentially correct, although more than two types of genes are actually involved. Called also Dreyer and Bennett hypothesis.
Medical dictionary.
2011.
Look at other dictionaries:
clonal selection theory — a modification of the natural selection theory (q.v.): there are in each adult several million clones of antibody producing cells, each programmed to make antibody of a single specificity and bearing cell surface receptors capable of reacting… … Medical dictionary
Dreyer and Bennett hypothesis — Drey·er and Ben·nett hypothesis (driґər benґət) [William J. Dreyer, American immunologist, born 1928; Joe Claude Bennett, American rheumatologist, born 1933] see recombinational germline theory, under theory … Medical dictionary
Dreyer and Bennett hypothesis — see recombinational germline theory, under theory … Medical dictionary
