Contemporary Topics in Molecular Immunology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. The Ia Antigens

   • David H. Sachs

   Pages 1-33

3. Preliminary Amino Acid Sequences of Transplantation Antigens: Genetic and Evolutionary Implications

   • J. Silver, L. Hood

   Pages 35-68

4. Biological and Biochemical Properties of Solubilized Histocompatibility-2 (H-2) Alloantigens

   • Lloyd W. Law, Ettore Appella

   Pages 69-85

5. Solubilization of Biologically Active Cell Surface Antigens

   • Jack H. Pincus

   Pages 87-124

6. Surface Immunoglobulins of B and T Lymphocytes: Molecular Properties, Association with the Cell Membrane, and a Unified Model of Antigen Recognition

   • John J. Marchalonis

   Pages 125-160

7. Allotypes of Light Chains of Rat Immunoglobulins and Their Application to the Study of Antibody Biosynthesis

   • Roald Nezlin, Oscar Rokhlin

   Pages 161-184

8. Genetic and Structural Studies of a V-Region Marker in Mouse Immunoglobulin Light Chains

   • Paul D. Gottlieb

   Pages 185-216

9. Multivalent Binding and Functional Affinity

   • Fred Karush

   Pages 217-228

10. Back Matter

    Pages 229-234

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Immunochemistry, recently rechristened molecular immunology, has been pre­ occupied throughout its long history with the structure and function of antibodies and the specificity of antibody-antigen reactions. With the recent X-ray diffrac­ of several crystallized immunoglobulin (Ig) fragments and a whole tion analyses Ig molecule, the three-dimensional structure of antibodies and their ligand­ combining sites has been realized, marking the concluding stages of a phase of immunological research that can be traced back at least 75 years. At the same time chemically minded immunologists have been moving in new directions. A substantial beginning in one direction has been made with the purification of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for Ig chains. Hybridization of these RNAs (or their DNA copies made with the enzyme reverse transcriptase) to cell DNA is beginning to provide convincing estimates of the number of germ-line Ig genes. And some hybridization studies have already yielded suggestive evidence for translocation of V and C genes from separate to contiguous positions in DNA isolated from cells at different stages of differentiation. Moreover, in vitro trans­ lation of Ig mRNAs has revealed a remarkably hydrophobic stretch of about 20 amino acids at the N-terminus of the nascent Ig chain. This extra piece is absent in the Ig extracted from or secreted by plasma cells, presumably because it is rapidly cleaved from the "preimmunoglobulin" chain within the cell, but the extra piece probably plays a key role in directing the synthesis of prelg to the cell's secretory pathway.

• antibody
• antigen
• immunoglobulin
• immunology

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

  H. N. Eisen

• Harvard—MIT Program for Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, USA

  H. N. Eisen

• Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, USA

  R. A. Reisfeld

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