Betz A G, Neuberger M S, Milstein C
Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK.
Immunol Today. 1993 Aug;14(8):405-11. doi: 10.1016/0167-5699(93)90144-a.
Studies of the antibody hypermutation mechanism have revealed that it is not a random process but exhibits characteristic nucleotide substitution preferences. Here, Alexander Betz and colleagues show that these innate nucleotide substitution preferences can be used to examine databases of antigen-selected V gene sequences and thereby distinguish intrinsic from antigen-selected hotspots. This analysis reveals intrinsic mutational hotspots in both VH and VL genes, reflecting innate features of the hypermutation machinery which may give clues to the enzymatic mechanism.
抗体超突变机制的研究表明，这并非一个随机过程，而是呈现出特定的核苷酸替换偏好。在此，亚历山大·贝茨及其同事表明，这些固有的核苷酸替换偏好可用于检查抗原选择的V基因序列数据库，从而区分内在热点和抗原选择热点。该分析揭示了VH和VL基因中的内在突变热点，反映了超突变机制的固有特征，这可能为酶促机制提供线索。
