The Clonal Selection Hypothesis Evaluated by Grafted Cells Reacting Against their Hosts

Abstract

I would like to make it clear to start with that the clonal selection hypothesis referred to in the title is that of Burnet in its original version (1957, 1959). In the old form, the hypothesis envisaged a single locus for the synthesis of antibody specificity, and the extreme multiplicity of specificities which a single individual can produce was accounted for by somatic mutation of that supposedly hypermutable locus. Consequently, each cell could produce only one antibody specificity if it was homozygous, or two if heterozygous.