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A complete map of the human immunoglobulin VH locus on chromosome 14 has recently been constructed. The locus is 1100kb in length and contains 51 functional VH segments interspersed amongst a similar number of pseudogenes. Here, Graham Cook and Ian Tomlinson review the organization of the locus, its polymorphism and the repertoire it encodes.

Garland, 1999. $48.95 (xix + 633 pages)ISBN 0 8153 3217 3Late in 1996 I reviewed the second edition of Immunobiology. We now skip the third edition (which came out in 1997) and look at the fourth. Mark Walport and Donald Capra join Charles Janeway and Paul Travers as co-authors, and it is easy to see why they were recruited. The frequent updating of this text is an obvious attraction. For example, the third edition just missed out on the structure of the T-cell receptor complexed with MHC class I. This edition remedies this by including the TCR–MHC structure as well as co-receptor binding to MHC molecules.The fourth edition is very similar in overall content to previous editions. One notable difference is the chapter on lymphocyte signalling. Love it or hate it, signalling pathways are central to understanding how immune responses develop. Previous editions have included descriptions of specific signalling pathways in specialist chapters (e.g. B-cell and T-cell signalling in B-cell and T-cell chapters, respectively). The new chapter introduces the general principles of signalling (receptor cross-linking, tyrosine kinases, SH2 and SH3 domains) and goes on to describe the structures of the antigen receptor complexes and the downstream events put into play by their recruitment, right down to the transcription factors they activate. Discussion is not confined to antigen receptor signalling, inhibitory receptors, innate responses and signals leading to cell death are also introduced. These pathways are instantly recognizable to anyone who has been to an immunology seminar in the past few years, and are a welcome addition for those who are not familiar with this area.Navigating the information in this edition is more straightforward, with conventional page numbering being used in place of the confusing system used previously, where page, section and figure numbering all looked the same. On the back of the book is a reference to a web site (http://www.immunobiology.com), which describes how this edition differs from previous versions. In the future it plans to act as a kind of journal club, introducing and linking to recent publications of interest (and with an immunology game thrown in).Web site or not, Immunobiology is as good a text book as Stryer’s Biochemistry or Lewin’s Genes, but for immunology. Specialist readers might find the odd piece of information they feel is inaccurate or over-simplified but remember that this is a text book not a review article. It is a book that can be used to look something up or learn something new. Order it along with your antibodies from the back of your reagent catalogue.

Transcription of antibody genes is restricted to lymphoid cells and is a process controlled by multiple DNA elements. However, modulation of expression during B-cell ontogeny is effected by post-transcriptional and post-translational processes. In this review, Michael Neuberger and Graham Cook note that some of the changes in antibody gene expression that occur during ontogeny correlate with the increased amount of endoplasmic reticulum found in plasma cells. They discuss how the cell type specificity of immunoglobulin gene expression results from differential regulation at multiple levels.