Viewpoint: Reflections on the clonal-selection theory

How do we account for the immune system's ability to produce antibodies in response to new antigens? It has been 50 years since F. Macfarlane Burnet published his answer to this question: the clonal-selection theory of antibody diversity. The idea that specificity for diverse antigens exists be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Reviews: Immunology 2007-10, Vol.7 (10), p.823-830
Main Authors: Cohn, Melvin, Mitchison, NAv, Paul, William E, Silverstein, Arthur M, Talmage, David W, Weigert, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:How do we account for the immune system's ability to produce antibodies in response to new antigens? It has been 50 years since F. Macfarlane Burnet published his answer to this question: the clonal-selection theory of antibody diversity. The idea that specificity for diverse antigens exists before these antigens are encountered was a radical notion at the time, but one that became widely accepted. In this article, Nature Reviews Immunology asks six key scientists for their thoughts and opinions on the clonal- selection theory, from its first proposal to their views of it today.
ISSN:1474-1733
1365-2567
DOI:10.1038/nri2177