title: The lingering enigma of the allelic exclusion mechanism.
abstract: B lymphocytes produce diverse antibody specificities by "randomly" assembling antibody genes from germline segments. Yet, though each B lymphocyte has multiple allelic loci for the different antibody chains, each clonally derived mature B lymphocyte expresses a single species of antibody with a unique specificity via a process termed allelic exclusion. Despite some progress, the precise mechanism of allelic exclusion remains an enigma.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mostoslavsky
authors.forename: Frederick W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Alt
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rajewsky
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D005809:Genes, Regulator / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains