Microbiology: A Human Perspective 7th Edition by Eugene Nester,Martha Nester,Denise Anderson, Evans Roberts

Exercise 2

Early investigators proposed two hypotheses to explain the speci­ficity of antibodies. The clonal selection hypothesis states that each lymphocyte can produce only one specificity of antibody. When an antigen binds to that B-cell receptor, the lymphocyte is selected to give rise to a clone of plasma cells producing the antibody. The template hypothesis states that any antigen can interact with any lymphocyte and act as a template, causing newly forming antibod­ies to be specific for that antigen. In one experiment to test these hypotheses, an animal was immunized with two different antigens. After several days, lymphocytes were removed from the animal and individual cells placed in separate small containers. Then, the original two antigens were placed in the containers with each cell. What result would support the clonal selection hypothesis? The template hypothesis?