VL-VH expression by monoclonal antibodies recognizing avian lysozyme

Seven BALB/c hybridoma antibodies directed against the protein antigen, hen egg-white lysozyme c (HEL), were characterized on the basis of their ability to bind lysozymes from 10 species of birds, and their ability to bind HEL competitively. The hybridomas were separable into three complementation groups based upon competitive interactions. The fine specificities of all antibodies were distinct, but two, HyHEL-8 and HyHEL-10, had very similar and overlapping reactivity patterns. To test the hypothesis that VL-VH pairing correlates with binding specificity, the N-terminal amino acid sequences were determined to identify the VL and VH isotopes (subgroups) of the anti-HEL antibodies. HyHEL-8 and -10 shared the VK23 light chain isotype and nearly identical heavy chains in Kabat subgroup I, whereas the heavy and light chain isotypes of all other antibodies differed from HyHEL-8 and -10 and from each other. The heavy and light chain isotypes expressed by HyHEL-8 and -10 are also expressed by XRPC-25, a DNP-binding myeloma protein that does not bind lysozyme. These results are discussed with respect to the contributions of various genetic sources of structural diversity to antibody functional diversity.