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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1986 May;83(10):3336–3340. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.10.3336

Rearrangement of chicken immunoglobulin genes is not an ongoing process in the embryonic bursa of Fabricius.

J C Weill, C A Reynaud, O Lassila, J R Pink
PMCID: PMC323508  PMID: 3010290

Abstract

We report a molecular analysis of the chicken Ig loci in single bursal follicles from 3- to 7-week-old chickens. Each follicle contained between 10(5) and 3 X 10(5) cells. The Ig gene rearrangement patterns obtained were compared to the pattern observed with the corresponding total bursal DNA. The results obtained for the light chain locus imply that a very small number (two on average) of rearrangement events takes place in each follicle. For the heavy chain locus similar results were obtained, each follicle showing a more restricted pattern than the total bursa. These data favor a model in which each follicle is colonized by a very few prebursal stem cells that are committed to a particular Ig gene rearrangement at the very beginning of the development of the embryonic bursa. The role of the bursa as the organ in which such a committed stem cell population for the B-cell lineage arises is discussed.

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Selected References

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