Individual Sea Urchin Coelomocytes Undergo Somatic Immune Gene Diversification.

ABSTRACT: The adaptive immune response in jawed vertebrates is marked by the ability to diversify somatically specific immune receptor genes. Somatic recombination and hypermutation of gene segments are used to generate extensive repertoires of T and B cell receptors. In contrast, jawless vertebrates utilize a distinct diversification system based on copy choice to assemble their variable lymphocyte receptors. To date, very little evidence for somatic immune gene diversification has been reported in invertebrate species. Here we show that the SpTransformer (SpTrf ; formerly Sp185/333) immune effector gene family members from individual coelomocytes from purple sea urchins undergo somatic diversification by means of gene deletions, duplications, and acquisitions of single nucleot

SUBMITTER: Oren M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6563789 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature