Working with Miraculous Mice: Mus musculus as a Model Organism.

The laboratory mouse has been described as a "miracle" model organism, providing a window by which we may gain an understanding of ourselves. Since the first recorded mouse experiment in 1664, the mouse has become the most used animal model in biomedical research. Mice are ideally suited as a model organism because of their small size, short gestation period, large litter size, and genetic similarity to humans.

Selection in the germinal center.

Germinal centers (GCs) are well known for their important role in shaping the secondary B cell repertoire to generate antibodies capable of binding with high-affinity and specificity to foreign antigens. Somatic hypermutation of the Ig variable region genes in GC B cells represents a highly efficient mechanism for generating new antibody variants with increased antigen affinity. To be effective, however, this process needs to be intimately linked with equally efficient processes that positively select high-affinity clones for perpetuation in the GC and, ultimately, for differentiation into plasma cell and memory B cell effector populations.