B Cell Receptor Signal Transduction in the GC Is Short-Circuited by High Phosphatase Activity

Abstract

So Selective The key elements for long-lived antibody-mediated immunity—memory B cells and plasmablasts—are generated in germinal centers, where B cells expressing high-affinity antigen receptors are selected for survival and proliferation in a process called affinity maturation. Unexpectedly, Khalil et al. (p. 1178 , published online 3 May; see the Perspective by Bannard and Cyster ) found that, in contrast to naïve B cells and B cells outside the germinal center, proximal signaling events are impaired downstream of the antigen receptor in mouse germinal center B cells.