Though the general structure of all antibodies is very similar, a small region at the tip of the protein is extremely variable, allowing millions of antibodies with slightly different tip structures, or antigen binding sites, to exist. This region is known as the "hypervariable region". Each of these variants can bind to a different antigen. This enormous diversity of antibodies allows the immune system to recognize an equally wide variety of antigens. The large and diverse population of antibodies is generated by random combinations of a set of gene segments that encode different antigen binding sites (or "paratopes"), followed by random mutations in this area of the antibody gene, which create further diversity. Antibody genes also re-organize in a process called class switching, which allows a single antibody to be used by several different parts of the immune system.