Lack of heterogeneity in antihapten antibodies of a phylogenetically primitive shark

Individual mammals have the capacity to express at least one million distinct antigen binding specificities, implying a high degree of structural heterogeneity in the variable heavy and light chain (VH and VL) portions of the antibody molecules. Studies of higher vertebrate species suggest that this heterogeneity is created both through a sizeable repertoire of germ-line VH and VL genes and through random rearrangements of V and joining genes. Additional somatic mechanisms probably also contribute to the ultimate heterogeneity; one-third of murine plasmacytomas producing lambda 1 immunoglobulin carry a somatically mutated Ig1-V gene. The relative contributions of these various mechanisms to the overall imunoglobulin variability are difficult to evaluate. The production of different antibodies to a defined determinant in different individuals of an inbred mouse strain [for example, (3-iodo-4-hydroxy-5-nitrophenyl) acetyl (NIP) in CBA mice] suggests the involvement of somatic mutations or rearrangement but does not rule out the possibility that each individual CBA mouse expresses only a small random fraction from a large germ-line repertoire of V genes determining different anti-NIP binding sites. The opposite finding, that different individuals produce nearly identical antibodies to a defined determinant, would suggest the presence and expression of a limited number of germ-line genes without somatic alterations. Data presented here suggest that primitive sharks (Heterodontus fransisci) produce such antibodies to the hapten furyloxazolone.