Speculations about the origins of antibody diversity have intrigued immunologists for the past 75 years. How can the vertebrate organism generate perhaps as many as 105 to 107 different antibody molecules? Two points of view have developed in response to this question, the germ-line theory and the somatic theory. Does an organism inherit all the genes required for the myriad antibody molecules it will produce, or do most antibody genes arise during differentiation by a process of somatic mutation?
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Hood et al. (1977) studied this question.