Development and Characterization of Antibodies that Immunoprecipitate the FMR1 Protein

The ability to generate antibodies that recognize a given protein relies on that protein’s “antigenicity”, i.e., its ability to appear foreign to the host immune system. Thus, proteins that are highly conserved among species are often poor antigens when used for immunization (1 ). This lack of immunoreactivity is not owing to the inherent nature of the protein; rather, it is because of the mechanism of tolerance, which exists to minimize autoimmune disease. Immunological tolerance occurs in an organism to prevent the development of a destructive immune response to self-proteins. It operates by eliminating or inactivating immune cells that bear receptors that recognize and respond to autologous protein antigens (2 ). Thus, it is very difficult to generate an immune response in mice to either murine (i.e., self) antigens or to highly conserved proteins (1 ).