Food-Nonfood Discrimination in Ancestral Vertebrates: Gamete Cannibalism and the Origin of the Adaptive Immune System.
Adaptive immunity is a complex system that appeared twice in vertebrates (in gnathostomes and in jawless fish) although it is not required for invertebrate defence. The adaptive immune system is tightly associated with self-non-self discrimination, and it is now clear that this interplay is not limited to the prevention of autoreactivity. Micro-organisms are usually considered for their pathogenicity or symbiotic ability, but, for most small metazoans, they mainly constitute food. Vertebrates are characterized by feeding by predation on larger preys, when compared to their ancestors who were filter feeders and ate micro-organisms. Predation gives a strong selective advantage, not only due to the availability of new food resources but also by the ability to eliminate competitors for environmental resources (intraguild predation (IGP)). Unlike size-structured IGP, intraspecific predation of juveniles, zygotes or gametes can be detrimental for species fitness in some circumstances. The ability of individuals to recognize highly polymorphic molecules on the surface of gametes present in the plankton and so distinguish self versus non-self gametes might have constituted a strong selective advantage in intraspecific competition. Here, I propose the theory that the capacity to rearrange receptors has been selected in ancestral vertebrates as a consequence of this strong need for discriminating between hetero-cannibalism versus filial cannibalism. This evolutionary origin sheds light on presently unexplained features of the immune system, including the existence of regulatory T cells and of non-pathogenic natural autoimmunity.
U1021 INSERM, Institut Curie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR3347, Institut National de la Santé et de Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U1021, Université Paris-Sud 11, Centre Universitaire, Orsay, France.
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D056704:Adaptive Immunity; D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002190:Cannibalism; D005502:Food; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D014714:Vertebrates