Structure and Properties of Human Immunoglobulin Light-Chain Dimers

Antibodies are multisubunit proteins, but unlike many other multisubunit proteins, it is possible to study structural and functional properties of an antibody subunit free of the others. Thus, antibodies are singular proteins in that they are highly amenable to analysis by a fundamental scientific research strategy, i.e., investigation of complex systems by study of its parts. The metabolism of even a superficially simple bacterial cell cannot be understood without a rigorous understanding of the kinetic properties of each of the enzymes involved. In much the same way, the quaternary interactions of protein subunits cannot be understood except in those relatively rare cases in which the subunit and individual domain components of a complex protein can be examined individually, yielding structural and biophysical information.