Fluctuating fitness shapes the clone-size distribution of immune repertoires
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Abstract
Significance: Receptors on the surface of lymphocytes specifically recognize foreign pathogens. The diversity of these receptors sets the range of infections that can be detected and fought off. Recent experiments show that, despite the many differences between these receptors in different cell types and species, their distribution of diversity is a strikingly reproducible power law. By introducing effective models of repertoire dynamics that include environmental and antigenic fluctuations affecting lymphocyte growth or “fitness,” we show that a temporally fluctuating fitness is responsible for the observed heavy tail distribution. These models are general and describe the dynamics of various cell types in different species. They allow for the classification of the functionally relevant repertoire dynamics from the features of the experimental distributions.
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T cell diversity and its functional consequences are determined by the distribution of clonal sizes.
“T cell diversity and its functional consequences are determined by the distribution in clonal sizes”
From Successful and Maladaptive T Cell Aging (2017) · cites this paper as Desponds et al., 2016
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- Authors
- Desponds, J., Mora, T., & Walczak, A. M.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2015-12-28
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 274-279
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4720353
- OpenAlex
- W2124015941
- Cited by
- 96
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 5.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- EC | European Research Council (StG n. 306312)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Artificial Immune Systems Applications
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Keywords
- immune repertoire, clone size distribution, power-law distribution, somatic evolution, B cells, T cells, growth factors, environmental variability, population evolution
- MeSH terms
- Antigens, Clone Cells, Phenotype, Models, Immunological, Cell Size, Adaptive Immunity, Clonal Evolution
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