Figure 6.

Potent Selection of Hypermutated B Cells in Chronically Infected Mice

(A and B) We infected AID^G23S/- and WT control mice with rCl13 and measured viremia (A) and rCl13-neutralizing antibodies (B) over time.

(C and D) Sixty days after infection we sorted GC B cells (GL7⁺B220⁺) from the spleen for IgH locus sequencing. Number of nucleotide mutations in all J_H introns (left) and in mutated J_H introns (right, C). Distribution of J_H intron mutation numbers (mutations per individual sequence) in AID^G23S/- and WT control mice (D). Results represent 74 and 62 sequences, respectively, from three mice per group.

(E and F) Number of amino acid mutations per sequenced V_H region (E) and distribution of V_H mutation numbers (F) in AID^G23S/− and AID^wt control mice. 1.3 ×10⁶ – 1.5 × 10⁶ sequences per mouse from three to five mice per group were analyzed.

Symbols in (A) and (B) represent means ± SEM. Bars in (C) and (E) represent means ± SD, with symbols showing individual mice. Donut plots represent the distribution of sequences with the indicated mutation numbers. n = 7 to 8 (A and B), n = 3 (C and D). N = 2 (A, B, E, and F), N = 1 (C and D). ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01 by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test. The fold difference between groups is indicated (C and E).