Cohn M
Conceptual Immunology Group, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Scand J Immunol. 2004 Jul-Aug;60(1-2):1-2. doi: 10.1111/j.0300-9475.2004.01449.x.
The "adaptive" immune repertoire functionally recognizes pathogens (and their toxic products) that the "innate" defense system misses. This requires that the self-nonself discrimination and the regulation of effector output be dependent primarily on somatic learning mechanisms (i.e. on the somatically generated, large, random "adaptive" immune paratopes repertoire).