The one place evolution
happens inside you
A T cell receptor is fixed once it is made. A B cell receptor gets better inside your body.
In the germinal centre of a lymph node it mutates, is tested, and survives — dozens of times over a few days. Darwinian evolution turning several cycles in a single week.
Not just in words: you open 7,460 B cells from public 10x data, align them against IMGT germline sequences and count the mutations yourself. IgM comes out at 0.99%, IgG1 at 9.38%. That tenfold gap is the mark the germinal centre left.
How you'll learn
We download IMGT germline sequences, slide them along each 10x contig and count the mismatches. IgM 0.99%, IgG1 9.38% — not quoted from a paper, but computed in your browser a moment ago.
Our alignment cannot insert gaps. Lesson 10 says so up front, then asks whether that limit shakes the conclusion — a tenfold gap does not budge.
Lesson 19 writes down three predictions about tumour B cells before checking. All three miss. We record that, and record that we cannot tell why.
We did not strip the doublets. Lesson 17 identifies them by the fact that they grow with sample size, then re-checks whether any conclusion moves.