Somatic hypermutation

(noun)

a cellular mechanism by which the immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it (for example, microbes). A major component of the process of affinity maturation, SHM diversifies B cell receptors used to recognize foreign elements (antigens) and allows the immune system to adapt its response to new threats during the lifetime of an organism.

Related Terms

Examples of Somatic hypermutation in the following topics:

  • Antibody Genes and Diversity

    • The first stage is called somatic, or V(D)J, which stands for variable, diverse, and joining regions recombination.
    • In these rapidly dividing cells, the genes encoding the variable domains of the heavy and light chains undergo a high rate of point mutation, by a process called somatic hypermutation (SHM).
    • Somatic hypermutation involves a programmed process of mutation affecting the variable regions of immunoglobulin genes.
    • Outline the two stages which result in antibody diversity: somatic (V(D)J) and recombination stages

  • Mutation

    • They can also be induced by the organism itself, through cellular processes such as hypermutation.

  • Chemotaxis

    • Chemotaxis is the phenomenon whereby somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment.

  • Botulism

    • It acts by blocking nerve function (neuromuscular blockade) through inhibition of the release of the excitatory neurotransmitter acetyl choline from the presynaptic membrane of neuromuscular junctions in the somatic nervous system.

  • Typhoid Fever

    • Diagnosis is made by any blood, bone marrow or stool cultures and with the Widal test (demonstration of salmonella antibodies against antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar).