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The Triumph of Individualism: Evolution of Somatically Generated Adaptive Immune Systems

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Evolutionary Concepts in Immunology

Abstract

The receptors of innate immune systems evolve slowly over time. Those that confer some fitness benefit will be naturally selected, and so become the common property of the succeeding generations. In contrast, the receptors of the so-called adaptive immune systems are generated somatically within each individual, by moving evolution from the level of the germline to that of somatic cells. As a result, each individual ends up with a repertoire of adaptive immune receptors that is as distinctive as are their fingerprints. Unlike the fingerprint, however, the repertoire of adaptive immunity in an individual is constantly changing. Adaptive immune systems come in two fundamentally different forms that differ both in the nature and in the source of the pathogen-sensing element. On the one hand are those immune systems that use nucleic acids as the pathogen sensors. In these cases the sensor is only formed after infection, and the key information needed to build it is derived from the pathogen. On the other hand are those “anticipatory” systems that use proteins as pathogen sensors. Here the sensors have been formed prior to infection with the pathogen, and the information used to form the sensors is entirely host derived.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Robert Jack

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology, University of Basel, Basel Stadt, Switzerland

    Louis Du Pasquier

Authors
  1. Robert Jack
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  2. Louis Du Pasquier
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Jack, R., Du Pasquier, L. (2019). The Triumph of Individualism: Evolution of Somatically Generated Adaptive Immune Systems. In: Evolutionary Concepts in Immunology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18667-8_4

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