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Origin and Evolution of the Vertebrate Immune System pp 3–16Cite as

New Approaches Towards an Understanding of Deuterostome Immunity

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Part of the Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology book series (CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 248)

Abstract

The vertebrate immune system is distinguished by an unusual propensity for genetic invention. For example, three forms of programmed somatic DNA recombination (V-D-J recombination, class switching and a highly targeted form of gene conversion) have arisen entirely independently in the course of immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy-chain gene evolution. Similar phenomena are virtually unknown in other metazoan genetic systems. Genes that mediate immunity are further characterized by accelerated sequence divergence rates when compared to nonimmune genes in studies of mouse and human gene orthologs (Hughes 1997; Murphy 1993). Both of these attributes, the tendency towards mechanistic novelty and a high rate of sequence evolution, may emerge from the dynamic nature of host-pathogen interactions and thus be a universal characteristic of immune systems. To investigate this possibility it is necessary to characterize immunity in animal phyla where the vertebrate forms of adaptive immunity are absent. A number of molecular advances have been made in recent years in the study of arthropod immunity (e.g., Hoffmann et al. 1996; Iwanaga and Kawabata 1998). As these data accumulate, in combination with similar work on an invertebrate deuterostome that is described here, a more general understanding of immunity will emerge.

Keywords

  • Acute Allograft Rejection
  • Terminal Gene
  • Vertebrate Immune System
  • Vertebrate Form
  • Protostome Invertebrate

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    J. P. Rast, Z. Pancer & E. H. Davidson

Authors
  1. J. P. Rast
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  2. Z. Pancer
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  3. E. H. Davidson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Basel Institute for Immunlogy, Grenzacherstr. 487, CH-4005, Basel, Switzerland

    Professor Dr. Louis Du Pasquier

  2. All Children’s Hospital, University of South Florida, 801 6th Street South, 33701, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Professor Gary W. Litman M.D.

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Rast, J.P., Pancer, Z., Davidson, E.H. (2000). New Approaches Towards an Understanding of Deuterostome Immunity. In: Du Pasquier, L., Litman, G.W. (eds) Origin and Evolution of the Vertebrate Immune System. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 248. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59674-2_1

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