The immune system is remarkable in its ability to produce antibodies (Abs) with virtually any specificity from a limited repertoire of germ line precursors. Although the contribution of sequence diversity to this molecular recognition has been studied for decades, recent models suggest that protein dynamics may also broaden the range of targets recognized. To characterize the contribution of pr...

Although over 90% of all human infections begin at a mucosal site (respiratory, gastrointestinal, urogenital, or ocular), the total number of infections occurring in the population is relatively low. This is in part the result of the secretion of a complex array of local and systemically produced immunoglobulins (Igs). Since the time of Pasteur (37), when immunization by the oral route was firs...

Antibodies are a unique class of proteins with the ability to adapt their binding sites for high affinity and high specificity to a multitude of antigens. Many analyses have been performed on antibody sequences and structures to elucidate which amino acids have a predominant role in antibody interactions with antigens. These studies have generally not distinguished between amino acids selected ...

patients with malignancy are at higher risk of thrombotic complications due to the hypercoagulability state. our objective in this study was to assess the serum concentrations of homocysteine, anti phospholipid antibodies, and anti cardiolipin in patients with benign and malignant breast tumors and study the effect of chemotherapy on the serum levels of these markers. a case control study was c...

Cattle have a limited range of immunoglobulin genes which are further diversified by antigen independent somatic hypermutation in fetuses. Junctional diversity generated during somatic recombination contributes to antibody diversity but its relative significance has not been comprehensively studied. We have investigated the importance of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) -mediated jun...

This paper proposes a method for the quantitative characterization of repertoire diversity of an unknown mixture of antibodies on the basis of its reactivity profile in the quantitative immunoblot (QIB). The QIB is calibrated by measuring the reactivity profiles of supernatants of known 'diversity' (i.e. known numbers of B cell clones). We define a quantitative 'index of variability' (IV) which...

Ten stocks of Cowdria ruminantium (Ball 3, Breed, Comoro, Germishuys, Kümm, Kwanyanga, Mali, Mara, Nonile and Welgevonden) were compared from a cross-immunity, serological and mouse pathogenicity point of view. They were found to differ in varying degrees. Except for the Ball 3, Comoro and Germishuys stocks that were similar but not identical, there was no pattern in the antigenic diversity of ...

Directed evolution of nucleotide libraries using recombination or mutagenesis is an important technique for customizing catalytic or biophysical traits of proteins. Conventional directed evolution methods, however, suffer from cumbersome digestion and ligation steps. Here, we describe a simple method to increase nucleotide diversity using single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) as a starting template. An i...

Marsupials are a lineage of mammals noted for giving birth to highly altricial young, which complete much of their "fetal" development externally attached to a teat. Postnatal B cell ontogeny and diversity was investigated in a model marsupial species, the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica. The results support the initiation of B cell development late in gestation and progressing...