Rostern Tembo*
During the maturation of every B cell and T cell in the body, there exists a process known as VDJ recombination, which acts to instate a drastic change in the cells’ genetic makeup. The purpose of the process is to completely randomize the way the genes are arranged so that the consequential immunoglobulins and T cell receptors can take on wildly different conformations, effectively preparing for the infinite possibilities of invasions that will inevitably occur. Taking only one of each of the numerous V, D, and J segments within a locus, proteins involved in the recombination function to bring said segments adjacent to one another, cleave off their ends, and attach them side by side via extra nucleotides placed in between them. As it is the process solely responsible for the body’s ability to protect and effectively memorize a plethora of different pathogens, antigens, and viruses, VDJ recombination almost single handedly defines the role of the human immune system at large. One feature of great importance in adaptive immunity is the ability to respond to an enormous number of different antigens.
The somatic assembly of the T Cell Receptor (TCR) genes generates a diverse T cell repertoire and is an essential component of the thymocytes development.
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