Serine-threonine Kinase, ROCK2, Regulates Germinal Center B Cell Positioning and Cholesterol Biosynthesis

Splenic follicular B cells (FoB; B220+GL7-CD38hiCD23+) and Germinal Center B cells (GCB; B220+GL7+CD38lo) were FACS sorted from WT or CD23-Cre.Rock2 mice after 7d post-immunization with NP-CGG. RNA-seq was then employed to compare the transcriptome of GCBs from the indicated mice. Here we show that loss of ROCK2 leads to altered gene expression in GCBs. We also employed ATAC-seq analysis and found that differentially expressed genes from the ROCK2-deficient GC B cells contained loci that were enriched for IRF binding sites. 1. Examination of FoB and GCB transcriptome in cells isolated from WT or CD23-Cre.Rock2 Mice (run in triplicate); 2. Analysis of chromatin landscape in FoB and GCB cells from WT and CD23-Cre.Rock2 mice by ATAC-seq (run in duplicate)