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Michel C. Nussenzweig, Fotini Papavasiliou, Xiao-Feng Qin, Eric Meffre, Heikyung Suh, Paul Cohen
The Rockefeller University
New York, NY

V(D)J Recombination in Mature B Cells: ? A New Mechanism for Antibody Gene Diversification

The clonal selection theory states that B lymphocytes producing high affinity immunoglobulins are selected from a pool of cells undergoing antibody gene mutation. Somatic hypermutation is a well-documented mechanism for achieving diversification of immune responses in mature B cells. The finding that antibody genes can also be modified by V(D)J recombination which is induced in germinal centers by RAG1 and RAG2 expression will be discussed. The ability to alter immunoglobulin expression by V(D)J recombination in the selective environment of the germinal center has important implications for our understanding of affinity maturation and antibody responses in vivo.