Somatic hypermutation is an amazing process which increases the diversity of the antibody response and can also lead to an increase in antibody affinity over time. As we noted in lecture, the human body has the potential to make 10 billion different antibodies from just a few gene regions and somatic hypermutation helps increase this diversity.
Somatic hypermutation is a process which essentially involves specific but semi-random mutation events which are focused only on a small region of the antibody genes. The small region just happens to be the binding site of antibodies for foreign antigens.
Mutations at large in the genome are often deleterious, yet somatic hypermutation and a process of selection leads to positive benefit for the host. Thus, from a design perspective we cannot say that all mutations or natural selection processes are neutral or bad or deleterious.
QUESTIONS
Give a brief explanation about how directed mutations work.
From a design perspective, why use a mutation process to increase antibody diversity and affinity?
What are some of the advantages involved in using a mutation system to increase immune function in this way?
DUE NOVEMBER 30
