From the wiki segement writes:
(D)J recombination, also known as somatic recombination, is a mechanism of genetic recombination in the early stages of immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptors (TCR) production of the immune system. V(D)J recombination takes place in the primary lymphoid tissue (the bone marrow for B cells, and Thymus for T cells).V(D)J recombination nearly randomly combines Variable, Diverse, and Joining gene segments of vertebrates, and because of its randomness in choosing different genes, is able to diversely encode proteins to match antigens from bacteria, viruses, parasites, dysfunctional cells such as tumor cells,[1] and pollens.
Shapiro in his book "Evolution: a view from the 21st century", defines natural genetic engineering as follows:
"The collective set of biochemical capabilities that cells have to restructure their genomes by cleaving, splicing, and synthesizing DNA chains. much as we do in modern biotechnology."
It seems to me that they are both describing the same process.
I am very much amazed that even though the process is said to be random, it appears that it is in fact a process that places the necessary genes where they are needed. Am I way off base on this?
The wiki artice says "nearly randomly combines..."
Why the "nearly" observation? Is it more than random?