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Science 23 February 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5252, pp. 1078 - 1079
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5252.1078
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Perspectives

Mark M. Davis

During an immune response, the immunoglobulin M gene of B lymphocytes is subject to somatic hypermutation, ultimately resulting in higher affinity antibodies. In this issue of Science, the crystal structure of a catalytic antibody bound to a transition state analog (Patten et al., p. 1086) sheds light on how this increase in affinity occurs. The mutations are found in areas of the protein that do not contact the antigen directly, but rather in areas that support and stabilize the binding surface in its optimal state for binding to the antigen.

The author is in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Beckman Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5428, USA. E-mail: mdavis@cmgm.stanford.edu




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)