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By creating an extremely diverse antibody repertoire, B cells protect the body against numerous infectious pathogens. Generation of this antibody repertoire depends on immunoglobulin gene modification events driven by four different molecular processes: V(D)J recombination, somatic hypermutation, class switch recombination, and gene conversion. The enzyme AID (activation-induced cytidine deaminase) is known to be involved in somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. In their Perspective, [Fugmann and Schatz][1] explain that AID is also essential for gene conversion ([ Arakawa et al .][2]) and discuss how AID could operate in these three quite different processes. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/5558/1244 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/295/5558/1301
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Fugmann et al. (2002) studied this question.
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