Abstract

In this Opinion article, I address the role of the pre-B-cell receptor (pre-BCR) in the development of antigen-specific B cells in terms of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) variable-region repertoire selection, precursor B-cell differentiation and proliferation, and IgH allelic exclusion. Comparisons with the role of the pre-T-cell receptor (pre-TCR) in T-cell development raise provocative questions. Why do B- and T-cell lineages both use a surrogate chain — the surrogate light chain and the pre-TCR -chain, respectively — as a step to develop their repertoires of antigen-recognizing cells? What are the functions of the pre-BCR and pre-TCR in lymphocyte differentiation and antigen-receptor allelic exclusion? This article, together with the accompanying article by Harald von Boehmer, hopes to answer some of these questions.

Author affiliations

1. Fritz Melchers is at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Campus Charité Mitte, Schumannstrasse 21–22, D-10117 Berlin, Germany, and at the Department of Cell Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50–70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
   Email: melchers@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de

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