immunoglobulin chains
The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.
DEFINITION:
- immunoglobulin chains
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The components of the heteropolymeric immunoglobulin molecules. There are five groups of heavy chains, each characteristic of a specific class of immunoglobulin: gamma (IgG), mu (IgM), epsilon (IgE), alpha (IgA), and delta (IgD). The genes encoding all the heavy immunoglobulin chains are located on human chromosome 14. The constant region of each heavy chain makes up about three-fourths of the molecule, and the gene segments encoding the constant regions are arranged in the sequence mu, delta, gamma, epsilon, and alpha in both humans and mice. There are two groups of light chains: kappa chains, encoded by gene segments on human chromosome 2, and lambda chains, encoded by gene segments on chromosome 22.
Used in 2 Term definitions
Used in 2 Term definitions