Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Immunoglobulin Gene Sequence Analysis In Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: From Patient Material To Sequence Interpretation
Published on: November 26, 2018
V(D)J Rearrangement Is Dispensable for Producing CDR-H3 Sequence Diversity in a Gene Converting Species
Philip A Leighton1, Jacqueline Morales1, William D Harriman1
1Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Emeryville, CA, United States.
Abstract:
An important characteristic of chickens is that the antibody repertoire is based on a single framework, with diversity found mainly in the CDRs of the light and heavy chain variable regions. Despite this apparent limitation in the antibody repertoire, high-affinity antibodies can be raised to a wide variety of targets, including those that are highly conserved. Transgenic chickens have previously been generated that express a humanized antibody repertoire, with a single framework that incorporates diversity by the process of gene conversion, as in wild-type chickens. Here, we compare the sequences and antibodies that are generated purely by gene conversion/somatic hypermutation of a pre-rearranged heavy chain, with the diversity obtained by V(D)J rearrangement followed by gene conversion and somatic hypermutation. In a gene converting species, CDR-H3 lengths are more variable with V(D)J rearrangement, but similar levels of amino acid diversity are obtainable with gene conversion/somatic hypermutation alone.
More Related Videos
15:07VDJ-Seq: Deep Sequencing Analysis of Rearranged Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Gene to Reveal Clonal Evolution Patterns of B Cell Lymphoma
Published on: December 28, 2015
16:02Demonstration of the Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility Tool for Rapid Assessment of Protein Conservation
Published on: February 10, 2023
Related Concept Videos
Multi-species Conserved Sequences
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
Keystone Species
What is a Species?
Formation of Species
Gene Flow
[3,3] Sigmatropic Rearrangement of 1,5-Dienes: Cope Rearrangement