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How does the signal for allelic exclusion transmit from the cell surface to the nucleus

Reference	BBS/E/B/0000L122
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Inga-Lill Martensson-Bopp
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Anne Corcoran
Institution	Babraham Institute
Department	Babraham Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	197,415
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	13/01/2005
End date	12/01/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The clonal selection theory postulates that a developing B cell is committed to producing one, and only one structure of an antibody. Implicit to this ¿one-cell-one-antibody¿ theory is that only one of the two alleles of antibody heavy and light chain genes is used to produce a receptor. This process is called allelic exclusion. In a wider context this is an example of mono-allelic expression, as also found in other antigen-receptor loci and genomic imprinting, X-inactivation, olfactory receptor expression. Crucially allelic exclusion ensures the expression of uniquely specific, high affinity antibodies, such as multivalent decameric IgM. Failure of allelic exclusion, rarely observed in vivo, would produce B cells with multiple low affinity specificities, which would be at best ineffective, at worst actively detrimental to the immune response.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Biochemistry & Cell Biology (BCB)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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