This volume is the collection of papers presented during a four day meeting, the EMBO workshop "Protein Conformation as an Immunological Signal" that took place at Portovenere (La Spezia), Italy, October 1-4, 1981. The motivation that drove us to organize this meeting was the feeling that distinct groups of researchers, active in key areas of modern immunology, sometimes fail to communicate with each other simply because of different traditional affiliations. Yet it is urgent that "molecular" and "cellular" people cooperate more if immunology is to continue the exportation of new concepts to other disciplines. In fact, the deep meaning of molecule-molecule and cell-cell interaction, the generation of signals and their effective transmission which results in elicitation, control or suppression of responses cannot be unraveled without the experts on antibody structure or complement activation sharing their views with the experts on T cell, B cell and macrophage membrane receptors as well as the experts on factors that carry the information released by these cells. Whether the meeting was scientifically fruitful, the reader can judge after having digested these pages. We, the organizers, are not sure whether the optimal amount·of interaction had taken place; especially considering how hard it is to overcome the scientist's catch 22: You have to know something quite well before you get really interested in it. In any event, we are convinced that Portovenere was one of the most successful attempts we have witnessed.

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Topic I. The Influence of Antigen Upon the Conformation of Antibody.- Antibody-Hapten Binding Kinetics, Conformational Transitions and Domains Interactions.- Dynamic Aspects of Signal Transfer in Antibody Molecules.- Could Aggregation of Human Immunoglobulins Bring About Appearance of Novel Antigenic Sites?.- Topic II. Structure/Function Interrelationships in IgM and IgG.- Immunoglobulin M Conformational Change is a Signal for Complement Activation.- Expression of Fc Effector Function in Homogeneous Murine Anti-ARS IgM.- The Localization of Effector Sites on Immunoglobulin G.- Human Fc? Fragment: Location of Acidic Residues Involved in Complement Activation.- Topic III. Structure Of C1, Interactions Between its Subunits and Other Macromolecules.- Ultrastructure of the First Component of Human Complement.- Binding of Human 125I-Fibronectin to C1q and to Human Monoclonal Myeloma IgG Subclasses.- Biochemical Specificity of Human Complement Component C1q.- Sequence Studies on Human Complement Subcomponent C1r.- Topic IV. The Activation of the First Component of Complement.- Dissociation of C1 and Concentration Dependence of Its Activation Kinetics.- Fluid Phase Activation of Proenzymic C1r.- Activation of Mammalian Complement by Chicken C1q.- Topic V. The Importance of Antigen Conformation for Antigenicity and Immunogenicity.- Conformational Antigenic Determinants in Proteins.- Topographic Antigenic Determinants Detected by Monoclonal Antibodies to Myoglobin.- Role of Conformation on the Antigenic Determinants of Tobacco Mosaic Virus Protein.- Monoclonal Antibodies May Block Sterically or Conformationally the Antigenic Determinants of Human Growth Hormone.- An Immunochemical Study of the Changes in Conformation Undergone by Two Domains of the Tryptophan-synthetase ?2 Subunit upon Association.- Topic VI. The Changes in Protein Antigen Conformation Induced by Antibody.- Antibody-mediated Activation of Genetically Defective Escherichia coli Galactosidases by Monoclonal Antibodies.- Synergistic Activation by Monoclonal Antibodies of ?-galactosidase from Genetically Defective E. coli.- Antibodies as Probes of Protein Structure.- Is There a Preferential Pathway for Antibody-mediated Enzyme Activation?.- Topic VII. The Recognition by T Cells of Protein Antigens.- General Introduction.- VIIa. Which are the Antigenic Determinants that T Cells Recognize?.- T Lymphocyte Recognition of Small Peptide Antigens: Formation of Neoantigenic Determinants and Clonal Frequency Resulting in Ir Gene Control.- The Antigenic Structure of Bovine Serum Albumin: T-Cell, B-Cell, and Ia Determinants.- Attempts to Understand the Function of Macrophages and Antigen Specific Cells in their Mutual Interaction.- A Possible Immunodominant Domain on Myoglobin Recognized by T Lymphocytes.- VIIb. What is the Role of MHC and Other Genes in the Antigen-presenting cell?.- Antigen Presenting Function of Macrophages.- The Sorting-Out Problem in Antigen Presentation.- Genetic Analysis of Responsiveness to Adjuvant-Free Immunological Signals: Transfer of Genes from Responder Strains (SJL/J and CE/J) to a Nonresponder Background Uncovers a Requirement for H-2 Heterozygosity.- How is Adjuvanticity Recognised?.- VIIc. Analysis of the Ternary Complex of Antigen: MHC: and T-cell Receptor with T cell Clones.- Specificity and Restriction of T Cells in a System of Complementing Ir Genes.- Evidence for Ia-Antigen Interaction in T Cell Activation.- Somatic T Cell Hybrids in the Analysis of H-2 Restriction and Antigen Recognition.- Topic VIII. Structural Aspects of T-B and T-T Interaction.- Antigen Bridging in T Cell-B Cell Interaction: Fact or Fiction?.- B Cells as MHC Restricted Antigen Presenting Cells: A Model for T-B Interaction.- A View from the Bridge: Antigenic Determinants in Immunoregulation.- Antigen Structures Used by Regulatory T Cells in the Interaction Among T Suppressor, T Helper and B Cells.- Activation of Human B Lymphocytes by Antigen Specific T Cell Lines.- T Helper Cell Recognition of Two Types of Mouse Lambda Light Chains.- Effects of Anti-Idiotypic Sera (Ab-2) and Monoclonal Idiotypic Antibody (Ab-1) on the Immune Response to a Simple Polypeptide Antigen with only two Immunologically Active Epitopes. Analysis of the Response at the Unideterminant Level.- Topic IX. Effector Mechanisms for Cell Signaling Resulting from Antigen-Antibody Interactions.- The Role of IgE and its Receptor in Mediating Secretion.- A New Method for Monitoring Intracellular Free Ca2+ in Lymphocytes. Concanavalin A and Anti-Igm Induce an Early Rise of Cytoplasmic Free Ca2+.- B Lymphocyte Stimulation and Suppression by the Fc Portion of Immunoglobulin.- Modulation of Immunological Reactivity by the Fc Piece of Immunoglobulin.- T Cell Replacing Factor (TRF)-Induced IgG Production in a Human B Cell Line and the Mechanism of Transmembrane Signaling through TRF-Acceptors.