title: Invertebrate immune recognition, natural immunity and the evolution of positive selection.
abstract: Invertebrate immunity exhibits immediate recognition without prior contact. Here, Tom Humphreys and Ellis Reinherz propose that receptors capable of actively recognizing self histocompatibility antigens could be generated by a process similar to positive selection, and that these could guide 'natural immunity' to foreign cells. These ideas provide a conceptual basis for invertebrate immunity and for understanding the evolutionary precedents for T-cell-mediated antigen recognition.
authors.affiliation: Kewalo Marine Laboratory, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Humphreys
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Reinherz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017634:Self Tolerance; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology