1957

Macfarlane Burnett propounds clonal selection theory of antibody diversity, according to which 1. We are all born with a pool of cells (B lymphocytes), each cell of which has potential to produce a specific antibody; 2. When an antigen is introduced into the body it unites with that single cell (lymphocyte) for which it is specific; 3. The union ignites a reaction in the lymphocyte which causes it to divide repeatedly; a clone of that cell line is formed; and 4. The cells (lymphocytes) in that clone mature and begin producing the antibody specific for the antigen (Desowitz, 80-81; Silverstein, 79-81). Burnett, Talmage, & Lederberg relied on Niels Jerne’s and Ehrlich’s postulate that antibodies are natural products that appear on the cell surface as receptors with which antigen can interact, but they held that the interaction signals clonal proliferation of a population of cells phenotypically restricted for the given antibody specificity; some daughter cells of the clone differentiate into antibody-forming cells while others remain as immunological memory cells able to participate in an enhanced booster antibody response (Silverstein, 117-18; 82).