B lymphocytes that enter the germinal center late preferentially differentiate into memory cells that recognize subdominant epitopes.

ABSTRACT: Immune responses to pathogens and effective vaccines elicit germinal center (GC) responses wherein B cells undergo affinity maturation and develop into plasma cells (PCs) and memory B cells (MBCs). The GC reaction is initially seeded by a limited group of founder B cells, and subsequently further diversified by continual entry of naïve B cells that compete with GC founder cells for antigen and T cell help. Whether these later-arriving invaders contribute to the development of PCs or MBCs is not known. To investigate the fate of GC invaders we developed a dual-recombinase reporter approach that enables pre- and post-GC B cell lineage tracing and used it to examine immune responses to vaccination and influenza infection. Notably, fate-mapped invaders preferentially give rise to MBCs as oppos

SUBMITTER: Zhou P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12636482 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature