Antibody affinity maturation

3-Second Blueprint (English)

1. In lymph node germinal centers, the enzyme AID induces antibody-gene point mutations at one million times the baseline rate.
2. Hypermutated centrocytes compete to capture limited antigen on follicular dendritic cells and present it to T cells for survival.
3. Low-affinity B cells undergo apoptosis while surviving high-affinity clones cycle further and become antibody-secreting plasma cells.