title: Overview of Drosophila immunity: a historical perspective.
abstract: The functional analysis of genes from the model organism Drosophila melanogaster has provided invaluable information for many cellular and developmental or physiological processes, including immunity. The best-understood aspect of Drosophila immunity is the inducible humoral response, first recognized in 1972. This pioneering work led to a remarkable series of findings over the next 30 years, ranging from the identification and characterization of the antimicrobial peptides produced, to the deciphering of the signalling pathways activating the genes that encode them and, ultimately, to the discovery of the receptors sensing infection. These studies on an insect model coincided with a revival of the field of innate immunity, and had an unanticipated impact on the biomedical field.
authors.affiliation: Faculté des Sciences de la Vie, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; UPR9022 du CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France. Electronic address: JL.Imler@unistra.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Imler
mesh_terms: D000486:Allergy and Immunology / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000276:immunology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D023421:Models, Animal; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors; C439909:imd protein, Drosophila
keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; IMD pathway; Innate immunity; Pattern recognition receptors; Toll-like receptors