The RNA-binding protein PTBP1 is necessary for B cell selection in germinal centers.

Monzón-Casanova, Elisa; Screen, Michael; Díaz-Muñoz, Manuel D; Coulson, Richard MR; Bell, Sarah E; Lamers, Greta; Solimena, Michele; Smith, Christopher WJ; Turner, Martin

The RNA-binding protein PTBP1 is necessary for B cell selection in germinal centers.

Authors

Monzón-Casanova, Elisa

Smith, Christopher WJ

Turner, Martin

Publisher

Springer Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-017-0035-5#article-info

Description

Antibody affinity maturation occurs in germinal centers (GCs), where B cells cycle between the light zone (LZ) and the dark zone. In the LZ, GC B cells bearing immunoglobulins with the highest affinity for antigen receive positive selection signals from helper T cells, which promotes their rapid proliferation. Here we found that the RNA-binding protein PTBP1 was needed for the progression of GC B cells through late S phase of the cell cycle and for affinity maturation. PTBP1 was required for proper expression of the c-MYC-dependent gene program induced in GC B cells receiving T cell help and directly regulated the alternative splicing and abundance of transcripts that are increased during positive selection to promote proliferation.