Today we know that three groups of genes participate in the creation of the variable part of the long chain, that is the part which together with the variable part of the short chain is specific for each antibody. These genes have the names V, D and J (Figure 3). The short chain has V and J genes. In man the number of different Y genes for the long chains are around 200 to which should be added about 20 D genes and 4 J genes. When the functioning gene of an antibody is to be created a single V, D and J gene are drawn at random from the three groups of genes. The process can be compared to a numbers lottery (Figure 4). 200 x 20 x 4 will give rise to 16 000 different variable parts.
V, D and J are put together in an irregular manner which will further enhance the richness of variation. And as the V and D genes often are different when inherited from our father and mother this will mean that already here possibility has been created for something like five million different forms of the variable part of the long chain. On top of this the light chain contributes with more than 10 000 variants. The final sum will be many billions possibilities of variation.