title: Immunoglobulins did not arise in evolution to fight infection.
abstract: The complex interactions between B and T cells in response to external antigens are the major focus of contemporary immunology. Here, John Stewart argues that they may be relatively late evolutionary developments, due to the redeployment of a system invented for other reasons. He suggests that the system of variable region molecules (VRM) arose, at the time of the first vertebrates, by an endogenous, self-organizing process; this primordial VRM system instituted a molecular ecology, a function so important that from then on no vertebrate has been able to do without it.
authors.affiliation: Unité d'Immunobiologie, CNRS URA 359, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000276:immunology; D007107:Immune System / Q000276:immunology; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell