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Science 10 October 1997:
Vol. 278. no. 5336, p. 197
DOI: 10.1126/science.278.5336.197n
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This Week in Science
During development, the RAG genes of B cells must rearrange the multiple components of their immunoglobulin genes (the product of which is an antibody) so that each B cell eventually expresses a unique antibody. When B cells are exposed to antigen, their specificity seems to evolve, through a process called somatic mutation, to produce antibodies that have greater affinities. The RAG genes get re-expressed in the germinal centers, where B cells meet antigen and hypermutation takes place. However, past work has shown that expression of the RAG genes does not always correlate with activity. Papavasiliou et al., working with a transgenic system, and Han et al. , working with normal mice, now show that the reexpressed RAG genes induce renewed recombination of the immunoglobulin genes to produce "edited" antibodies. [See the Perspective by Liu.]
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
