Aberrant rearrangements contribute significantly to the allelic exclusion of immunoglobulin gene expression.

A study of the organization of light- and heavy-chain immunoglobulin genes in mouse splenic B cells, spleen-derived hybridomas and plasmacytomas has unequivocally demonstrated that aberrant rearrangements are common during normal B-cell development. The results support a probabilistic model for allelic exclusion of immunoglobulin gene expression.