B-cell repertoire responses to varicella-zoster vaccination in human identical twins

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1415875112
• Publication Date: 2014-12-23T03:44:11Z
• Authors: Chen Wang; Yi Liu; Mary M. Cavanagh; Sabine Le Saux; Qian Qi; Krishna M. Roskin; Timothy J. Looney; Ji-Yeun Lee; Vaishali Dixit; Cornelia L. Dekker; Gary E. Swan; Jörg J. Goronzy; Scott D. Boyd
• Keywords: Antibody Repertoire

Significance Human B cells secrete highly diverse antibody molecules to recognize and defend against infectious agents. Developing independently rearrange their genomes produce antibody-encoding sequences. It is uncertain what degree genetic factors control repertoires the antibodies elicited by defined antigenic stimuli. Analysis of 134,000 heavy chain sequences from genetically identical twins vaccinated with varicella-zoster vaccine indicates that show increased correlation in gene segment usage, junctional features, mutation rates pools but little similarity clonal responses an acute stimulus. Therefore, a shared germ-line genome sequence correlated overall convergence repertoires, particular response given vaccination less predictable.