Co-evolution of a primordial peptide-presentation system and cellular immunity.
How did early vertebrates survive when their lymphocytes began to use antigen receptors with random specificities, despite their potential for extensive self-reactivity? Here, I propose that the quality-control mechanisms that tame self-reactivity in the adaptive immune system were derived, at least in part, from an ancient mechanism that guided sexual selection on the basis of evaluating genetic relatedness.
Department of Developmental Immunology, Max-Planck Institute of Immunobiology, Stübeweg 51, D-79108 Freiburg, Germany. boehm@immunbio.mpg.de
Thomas
T
Boehm
D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D018448:Models, Immunological; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*
D010455:Peptides