title: II. Correlations between secondary structure stability and mutation frequency during somatic hypermutation.
abstract: The role of secondary structures and base mutability at different levels of transcription and supercoiling is analyzed in variable region antibody genes VH5, VH94 and VH186.2. The data are consistent with a model of somatic hypermutation in which increasing levels of transcription and secondary structure stability correlate with the initial formation of successive mutable sites. Encoded differences exist in stem length and the number of GC pairs at low versus high levels of transcription in CDRs. These circumstances simplify the complexities of coordinating mutagenesis by confining this process to each mutable site successively, as they form in response to increasing levels of transcription during affinity maturation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA. barbara.wright@mso.umt.edu
authors.forename: Barbara E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Karen H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Aaron T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Minnick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D005787:Gene Frequency; D015326:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte, Heavy Chain; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D027041:Somatic Hypermutation, Immunoglobulin / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D004247:DNA