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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Immunol. 2007 Sep 21;45(3):632–652. doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2006.02.033

Table 6.

A comparison of the antigen-receptors, BCR and TCR

PROPERTY BCR TCR
Structure Homodimer (LH)2 Heterodimer (αβ)
Combining sites Two identical Three different
Transmembrane H-chain only Both α and β subunits
Functionally expressed D-RF One preferred RF All three RF
REPERTOIRE
Germline-encoded—Germline-selected ~40VLVH pairs anti-”CHO” ~102 (Vα+Vβ) anti-R (MHC)
Germline-encoded—Somatically selected ~1600 (402)VLVH random repertoire None
Somatically encoded— Somatically selected ~5×104 anti-Epitope ~5×104 anti-Peptide
Selected role of junctional sequences (NDNJ) Largely framework Largely complementarity-determining

RF = reading frame