BiologyImmunology9 minBeginner
Antibody and Antigen Binding
Inspect how the Y-shaped antibody uses flexible binding arms to recognize an antigen epitope.
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Antigen particle
A foreign or targeted structure recognized by immune molecules.
Antibodies recognize specific molecular shapes. Their two Fab arms carry binding sites that can match epitopes on an antigen, while the Fc region helps connect that recognition to downstream immune responses.
The hinge region gives the arms flexibility, which helps antibodies bind targets that vary in spacing or surface angle.
Key Idea
Antibody binding is a structure-function relationship: a small shaped region of a protein determines what target it can recognize.