Figure 4.

Transitions between distinct phases are governed by the timing and efficacy of strain-specific and cross-reactive B cell responses

Representative trajectories of Ag population (black) and average BCR-Ag binding probability (colored) for broad (B-type, colored solid; P_B) and narrow (N-type, colored dotted; P_N) B cell lineages under different combinations of epitope conservation (n_c) and initial Ag diversity (σ_A). Parameter choices correspond to the phase diagram in Figure 3A; panels A to E have decreasing initial antigen diversity, σ_A=2,1.5,1,0.5,0, respectively. In each panel, the number of conserved sites increases from left to right, n_c=2,3,4, respectively. When n_c=2 (n_c<n_b, left column), there is no contribution from B-type lineages (i.e. P_B=0), since fully conserved binding subspace does not exist.