3 ms·

Please can someone who is an expert in this field explain this in simple terms for us lay people?

• pas 5y ago
  not an expert, but you might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_UxnC_L2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_UxnC_L2o VDJ recombination is a "random number generator" that helps diversify receptors. (literally it shuffles the a very specific part of the genome of the developing immune cell), which leads to an almost surely new unique receptor that can match previously "undetected pathogens". this makes it possible for the adaptive immune system to have a higher efficiency. (of course if it matches something from the host, it's an autoimmune problem. but there's a step during immune cell development where these misbehaving cells are detected and destroyed, which generally works very well.)