On the skew distribution of immunoglobulins and the inverted protein-folding problem.
The question of antibody specificity is discussed in the framework of the inverted protein-folding problem (i.e. the characterization of protein sequences with a common fold). A stochastic model of the immune response, patterned after a model for the distribution of words in natural languages is proposed. It is shown that the steady-state probability distribution of immunoglobulin variable-region frequencies is the Yule distribution.
Jiménez-Montaño
M A
MA
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Ver., Mexico.
Lara-Ochoa
F
F
D000918:Antibody Specificity; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013269:Stochastic Processes
D007136:Immunoglobulins