The Fab portion of IgG binds to epitopes of a microbe. The Fc portion can now attach the microbe to Fc receptors on phagocytes for enhanced attachment, also known as opsonization. Once attached to the phagocyte by way of IgG, the microbe can be engulfed more efficiently and placed in a phagosome, and destroyed by lysosomes.
Flash animation illustrating Enhanced Attachment (Opsonization) of a
Bacterium By Way Of the Antibody IgG.swf by Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology,
The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/index.html.
Last updated: August, 2018
Please send comments and inquiries to Dr.
Gary Kaiser