THE EVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS OF THE IMMUNOGLOBULINS

Abstract

There is general agreement that the evolutionary origins of appropriately related proteins are reflected by homologies in amino acid sequence.1' 2 With the in- creasing knowledge of the structure and function of the different classes of im- munoglobulins, it is now possible to consider the evolutionary relationships among these proteins.Although several kinds of studies have given some insight into the evolution of immunoglobulins,3'-comparison of amino acid sequences among the major types of L and H chains may provide a clearer picture of immunoglobulin evolution.Now that a considerable portion of the amino acid sequence of the