Hypermutation in antibody affinity maturation

By studying the role of mismatch repair in hypermutation at the immunoglobulin loci, the field of antibody hypermutation has been integrated into the larger area of DNA repair. Trans-acting factors — Ku70, Ku80 and possibly SWAP-70 — have been identified for the temporally related but not mechanistically related immunoglobulin heavy-chain class-switch.