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Reflections on the clonal-selection theory

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 7, pages 823–830 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

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.

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Authors
  1. Melvin Cohn
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  2. N. Av Mitchison
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  3. William E. Paul
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  4. Arthur M. Silverstein
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  5. David W. Talmage
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  6. Martin Weigert
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FURTHER INFORMATION

1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Melvin Cohn's homepage

William E. Paul's homepage

David W. Talmage's homepage

Martin Weigert's homepage

Glossary

Instructionist theory

The theory that antigen acts as a template to instruct antibody specificity and production, so that antibodies are manufactured in the body de novo in response to a foreign antigen.

Selectionist theory

The theory that the individual has a pre-formed repertoire of antibodies, and that the binding of antigen to antibody triggers the self-replication of the bound antibody (that is, the antigen selects for the antibody).

Clonal-selection theory

(CST). The theory that each B cell has membrane-bound antibody receptors that are specific for one particular antigen, and once an antibody is selected (bound) by an antigen, the cell is stimulated to produce a clone.

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Cohn, M., Av Mitchison, N., Paul, W. et al. Reflections on the clonal-selection theory. Nat Rev Immunol 7, 823–830 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2177

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