Rearrangement/hypermutation/gene conversion: When, where and why?

Diversification strategies for immunoglobulins vary widely in different species. Here, Jean-Claude Weill and Claude-Agnes Reynaud argue that V(D)J recombination arose as a means for achieving allelic exclusion rather than diversity, and postulate that the choice of a diversification strategy is selected along with a specific site of B-cell differentiation. They propose that somatic mutation and gene conversion represent analogous molecular strategies occurring in specific chromatin accessibility contexts.