Fig. 3

Probability of sampling memory B (mB) cells and antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) in the Rep-Seq output by Monte Carlo simulation. The probability of sampling an mB cell of a given size (number of reads per lineage) was calculated as described in Additional file 1. a Probability of sampling an mB cell of a given lineage size (read number) as a function of the proportion of mB cells in the sample (x axis). b Simulation of a dengue infection where plasmablast mobilization increases to 56 % of IgG⁺ B cells (or ~5.6 % of CD19+), with a concomitant reduction in the relative proportion of mB cells to 44 %. c Simulation of post-convalescence where the proportion of plasmablasts returns to basal levels (4.3 % of IgG⁺) and mBs dominate the sample. In these conditions, only very large lineages (≥10 reads) are expected to derive from ASCs