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Previous Volume 340:658 February 25, 1999 Number 8 Next

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By Scott H. Podolsky and Alfred I. Tauber. 508 pp. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1997. $75. ISBN 0-674-77181-8.

This book reviews the history of the clonal-selection theory and the debate about the generation of antibody diversity. The theory of clonal selection that was advanced independently by Burnet and Talmage in 1957 is now a generally accepted concept among immunologists. According to this theory, each B lymphocyte has a set of antibody receptors of a single specificity; when activated by the antigen, its descendants (the clone) produce antibodies with the same specificity as the receptors of the original B cell. Contrary to earlier, "instructive" theories, the antigen plays no part in determining the specificity of the receptors.

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