Estimated number of different receptors that can be expressed by a naive B cell

Value 1e+11 Unitless
Organism vertebrates
Reference Kenneth M. Murphy, Paul Travers, Mark Walport, Janeway's Immunobiology, 7th edition 2008 Garland Science p.153 top paragraph
Comments P.153 top paragraph: "4-6 The diversity of the immunoglobulin repertoire is generated by four main processes: The gene rearrangement that combines gene segments to form a complete V-region exon generates diversity in two ways. First, there are multiple different copies of each type of gene segment, and different combinations of gene segments can be used in different rearrangement events. This combinatorial diversity is reponsible for a substantial part of the diversity of V regions. Junctional diversity is introduced at the joints between the different gene segments as a result of the addition and subtraction of nucleotides by the recombination process. Another type of combinatorial diversity arises from the many different combinations of heavy and light chains that pair to form the antigen binding site. The two combinatorial diversities could theoretically give rise to 1.9x10^6 different molecules (see Section 4-7). Together with the junctional diversity it is estimated that as many as 10^11 different receptors could make up the repertoire of receptors expressed by naive B cells."
Entered by Uri M
ID 103576