Germline codon usage as an indicator of immune selection dynamics Uri Hershberg Laboratory Medicine and Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine The form of the amino acid (AA) table, and the
relationship between genotype and phenotype that it implies, are at the
basis of all processes of evolution. We have developed a network view of
the AA table in which every codon is a node and every edge is a
mutation. We have used the measures this view generates to study the
process of affinity maturation in the immune reaction. In this enclosed
process of selection, B-lymphocytes triggered by a pathogen, undergo
rapid mutation, proliferation and death over a short period of time.
This process leads to the selection of those cells, which produce high
affinity receptors to the pathogen. Due to the short time scale we
expect the process to be dependent on the connectivity of the AA
network. |