| First Author | Halemano K | Year | 2014 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 111 |
| Issue | 21 | Pages | 7759-64 |
| PubMed ID | 24821801 | Mgi Jnum | J:211026 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5573049 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.1403361111 |
| Citation | Halemano K, et al. (2014) Immunoglobulin somatic hypermutation by APOBEC3/Rfv3 during retroviral infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(21):7759-7764 |
| abstractText | Somatic hypermutation (SHM) is an integral process in the development of high-affinity antibodies that are important for recovery from viral infections and vaccine-induced protection. Ig SHM occurs predominantly in germinal centers (GC) via the enzymatic activity of activation-induced deaminase (AID). In contrast, the evolutionarily related apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide 3 (APOBEC3) proteins are known to restrict retroviruses, including HIV-1. We previously reported that mouse APOBEC3 encodes Recovery from Friend virus 3 (Rfv3), a classical resistance gene in mice that promotes the neutralizing antibody response against retrovirus infection. We now show that APOBEC3/Rfv3 complements AID in driving Ig SHM during retrovirus infection. Analysis of antibody sequences from retrovirus-specific hybridomas and GC B cells from infected mice revealed Ig heavy-chain V genes with significantly increased C-to-T and G-to-A transitions in wild-type as compared with APOBEC3-defective mice. The context of the mutations was consistent with APOBEC3 but not AID mutational activity. These findings help explain the role of APOBEC3/Rfv3 in promoting the neutralizing antibody responses essential for recovery from retroviral infection and highlight APOBEC3-mediated deamination as a previously unidentified mechanism for antibody diversification in vivo. |
