Different B cell subpopulations show distinct patterns in their IgH repertoire metrics

Background: Several human B-cell subpopulations are recognized in the peripheral blood, which play distinct roles in the humoral immune response. These cells undergo developmental and maturational changes involving VDJ recombination, somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination, altogether shaping their immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) repertoire. Methods: Here, we sequenced the IgH repertoire of naive, marginal zone, switched and plasma cells from 10 healthy adults along with matched unsorted and in silico separated CD19+ bulk B cells. We used advanced bioinformatic analysis and machine learning to thoroughly examine and compare these repertoires. Results: We show that sorted B cell subpopulations are characterised by distinct repertoire characteristics on both the individual sequence and the repertoire level. Sorted subpopulations shared similar repertoire characteristics with their corresponding in silico separated subsets. Furthermore, certain IgH repertoire characteristics correlated with the position of the constant region on the IgH locus. Conclusion: Overall, this study provides unprecedented insight over mechanisms of B cell repertoire control in peripherally circulating B cell subpopulations.