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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Apr 24.
Published in final edited form as: Leukemia. 2018 Dec 16;33(2):287–298. doi: 10.1038/s41375-018-0303-x

Figure 2. The VDJ recombination process.

Figure 2.

Recombination of VDJ genetic regions of the heavy chain and VJ regions of the light chain at the pro- and pre-B stage allows generation of the variable regions of the heavy and light chain of the mature BCR. The high variability of the BCRs is in part due to the large number of V, D, and J gene regions of both Ig chains (e.g. the heavy chain includes 51V, 27D, and 6J genes). The complete BCR is composed by two variable heavy (VH) and two variable light (VL) chains, responsible for antigen binding, as well as two constant heavy (CH) and two constant light (CL) chains, involved in effector functions.