Antibodies play a central role in the adaptive immune defense of
all vertebrates. Thereby, the specific recognition of antigen
structures by antibody molecules determines the success of the
immune response. Therefore, the repertoire of antigen binding
sites within the immune system of an individuum, but also,
within a population, has been a mean focus of immunological
research within the last 3 decades. The first tool to analyse
the DNA sequence of the antigen binding site of an antibody was
DNAPLOT http://www.dnaplot.de webcite. Associated with the Vbase
database, the DNAPLOT search page was the first of its kind
which allowed the analysis of the modular composition of of
these binding sites, the immunoglobulin gene rearrangements. The
focus of this site was to identify and mark the genetics
elements that are used for these rearrangements. In the
meantime, several similar tools are available, including the
current DNAPLOT version at the VBASE2 database
http://www.vbase2.org webcite. We have now introduced a