In: Biology
A. What role does TdT play in antibody production?
B. What role does Rag1/2 play in antibody production?
answer for part A) First of all it is essential to know what is TdT and then only we can understand its role in antibody production.
TdT - Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase
1. TdT is a lymphoid( present in lymphoid organ ) specific DNA polymerase enzyme .
2. It plays a major role in generating diversity of lymphocyte antigen receptor during V(D)J recombination .
so basically it produces Tag and Bag (ag=antigen) receptor diversity.
now , we know that a antigen binds to a antibody , which is the T and B cell recetor in this case , which are produced by V(D)J recombination( it is a phenomenon of cutting , shuffling ,and then recombining of hundreds of VDJ genes , resulting in a wide diversity of antibodies for specific antigens ).
TdT exerts diversification in various antibody receptors in T and B cell by adding non template nucleotides at V(D)Junctions of these receptors, thus producing different antibodies.
So this how TdT plays a role in antibody production .
answer to part B) Again , to understand the role of any gene or protein in any phenomena in a biological system, we must first know what the gene or protein is , and its precise function...
so moving on : WHAT IS RAG ???
RAG - which is Recombination Activating Genes , Produce two main proteins RAG 1 and RAG 2 both present on chromosome 11 p13 (locus). and works as a multisubunit protein.
basically , RAG encodes for an enzyme (proteinaceous complex) which plays a key role in rearrangment and recombination of the genes of immunoglobulins ( which are antibodies) and T CELL receptor molecules.
The two proteins RAG1 and RAG2 are essential for generation of mature B and T lymphocytes (note that - reaarangment and shuffling mainly occurs inside B and T cell during their maturation )which are crucial in our adaptive immune response and adaptive immune responses is mainly the antibody production against any specific antigen encountered by the body .