As an adaptive immune response progresses,the production of variant antibodies that compete more effectively for antigen occurs,and B cells producing these antibodies are preferentially selected on the basis of their improved binding to antigen.This phenomenon is referred to as _______.

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The phenomenon being described is affinity maturation, which is the process by which B cells producing variant antibodies with higher affinity for antigen are selectively favored in the immune response. Isotype switching refers to the changing of antibody isotype, neutralization refers to the specific binding of antibodies to prevent viral or bacterial infections, allelic exclusion refers to the phenomenon where only one heavy and one light chaingene are expressed in a single B cell, and somatic rearrangement refers to the process by which the germline DNA is reorganized to produce the variable regions of immunoglobulin chains.

As an Adaptive Immune Response Progresses,the Production of Variant Antibodies