Problem:

There are several families of antibodies found in mammals. They may have two or more antibody domains which contain heavy and light chains. The variable regions of the light and heavy chains genes in the chromosome are spliced in antibody producing cells so that each cell produces a different antibody, with a unique sequence of amino acids in the variable regions.

The variable regions are disproportionately large here, but it gives some idea...

Required:

Question 1: What I'm having trouble finding is how the DNA regions of these genes look in cells which don't produce antibodies.

Question 2: Are they the same as that in the germline?Please explain.

Question 3: Do they undergo recombination but are not expressed? Describe it.

Any help would be appreciated.