Evolution of adaptive immune recognition in jawless vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: All extant vertebrates possess an adaptive immune system wherein diverse immune receptors are created and deployed in specialized blood cell lineages. Recent advances in DNA sequencing and developmental resources for basal vertebrates have facilitated numerous comparative analyses that have shed new light on the molecular and cellular bases of immune defense and the mechanisms of immune receptor diversification in the "jawless" vertebrates. With data from these key species in hand, it is becoming possible to infer some general aspects of the early evolution of vertebrate adaptive immunity. All jawed vertebrates assemble their antigen-receptor genes through combinatorial recombination of different "diversity" segments into immunoglobulin or T-cell receptor genes. However, the jawless verteb

SUBMITTER: Saha NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2823822 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature