® CC/NUMBER 20 This Week’s Citation Classic MAY 16,1988 Klein J. Biology of the mouse histocompatibility-2 complex: principles of immunogenetics applied to a single system. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1975. 620 p. [Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. Dallas, TXI

True to its name, the major histocompatibility com- fore decided to review the literature system- plex (Mhc) is one of the most intricate genetic sys- atically, to organize it, and to try to make some tems known. When it became known in 1974 that sense out of it. Mhc codes for one of three principal immunological At first I thought a paper of some 70 pages molecules, many immunologists began using this or so would suffice, and I made arrangements book as a guide through the maze of esoteric symbols with the editors of Series Haematologica to and knowledge scattered in a large variety of journals. publish the overview as one of their issues. I It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that the book soon realized, however, that the work would reared a generation of immunologists. [The SCI~in- be much longer. I then started to look for a dicates that this book has been cited in over 1375 publisher willing to bring the manuscript out publications.1 in the form of a book. At a conference at the Asilomar Conference Center, Monterey, California, I met Dietrich Gölze, who was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Clinic working on the 11-2 complex, which is the Jan Klein mouse version of Mhc and the epitome of all Abteilung lmmungenetik such complexes. When he heard that I was Max-Planck-lnstitut für Biologie writing a book on the H-2 complex, he imme- 0-7400 Tubingen diately offered to arrange its publication. The Federal Republic of Germany arrangement presented no problem for him since his father was the executive director of Springer-Verlag. In the end, the book turned September 28, 1987 outtohaveover60~p~es!- After the bookwas published, its success was almost instantaneous. Regardless of the labo- We scientists differ in the scope of ratory I visited, I found it on a desk in a state knowledge that satisfies our curiosity. Some indicating that it was used extensively. I ofus prefer to limit our exploration to a small attribute this success to the comprehensive area in which no stone is left unturned, while scope of the book and the intelligible way in others are inclined to encompass as broad a which it was written. The many newcomers field as is humanly possible. I belong to the to the field found the 11-2 complex as incom- lattercategory. If I could choose the time and prehensible as the hieroglyphs on the obelisk place ofmy birth, I would opt foreighteenth- at the Place de Ia Concorde. In the book I took century France. I would not particularly care great pains to explain, to synthesize, and to about making the acquaintance of Marat or put things into perspective. Apparently, that Robespierre, but I would be thrilled to work was just what was needed at that time. For with d’Alembert and Diderot on the many, the book became a gatethrough which Encyclopédie. However, I was born in the they could walk comfortably into the H-2 twentieth century, so I satisfy myure foren- citadel instead of having to laboriously climb cyclopedic knowledge in undertakings that its walls. others might consider insane—in writing books The book is still used, more than 12 years about the major histocompatibility complex after its publication, and now that I have (Mhc), for example. written2a new book on an even broader Following the 1969 discovery thatMhc has subject, it is sometimes referred to, some- a major influence on the immune1 response of what sacrilegiously, as the “Old Testament,” an organism to foreign , there began the recent book being the “New Testament.” an influx of scientific nomads to this area of This gives me great satisfaction and is a small study. The number of papers dealing with Mhc compensation for the effort that went into began to grow exponentially, and the scope writing both books. of Mhc studies widened so much that it began I thank all those who have written letters of to touch notonly on and genet- appreciation to me or who have sent me ics, but also on virology, tumor biology, bio- postcards with a picture of a bridge. I had no chemistry, developmental biology, anthropol- particular bridge in mind when I wrote the ogy, biology, and other fields. A sporadic preface, and I am surprised that the metaphor reading of the literature was no longer enough I used seems to apply to so many bridges all to keep up with the new developments. I there- over the world.

I. McDevilt H 0 & ChInila A. Genetic control of the response: relationship between immune response aim histocoinpatibility (H-2) type. Science 163:1207-8. 1969. (Cited 310 times.) 2. KleIn J. NatwaI hisrozy of the major histocoznpatibiluly complcs. New York: Wiley. 1986. 775 p.

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