Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, Odisha, India.
Immunol Lett. 2012 Nov-Dec;148(1):23-33. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2012.08.003. Epub 2012 Aug 10.
The basal position of fish in vertebrate phylogeny makes them very attractive for genomic and functional comparative immunity studies. Adaptive immunity arose early in vertebrate evolution, 450 million years ago between the divergence of cyclostomes and cartilaginous fish. The fundamental immune molecules, which include Ag-recognizing lymphocytes, immunoglobulins (Abs and Ig-family TCR), MHC products, and recombination-activating (RAG) 1 and 2 genes and the recombination mechanisms (cause of diversity in TCRs and Igs) are similar in fish and mammals. These molecules and their immune response mechanisms unravelled the primordial vertebrate immune system repertoire and adaptive radiations. Moreover, screening of animal models like zebrafish has a great importance to discover genes involved in T cell development, thymic organogenesis, and in immunity to infections. The zebrafish model may also be useful for cancer research due to its various features like rapid development, tractable genetics, ease in in vivo imaging and chemical screening.
鱼类在脊椎动物系统发生中的基础地位，使它们成为基因组和功能比较免疫学研究的理想对象。适应性免疫出现在脊椎动物进化的早期，即 4.5 亿年前，在圆口类和软骨鱼类分化之后。包括抗原识别淋巴细胞、免疫球蛋白（Abs 和 Ig 家族 TCR）、主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）产物、重组激活（RAG）1 和 2 基因以及重组机制（导致 TCR 和 Ig 多样性的原因）在内的基本免疫分子在鱼类和哺乳动物中是相似的。这些分子及其免疫反应机制揭示了原始脊椎动物免疫系统的多样性和适应性辐射。此外，对斑马鱼等动物模型的筛选对于发现参与 T 细胞发育、胸腺器官发生和抗感染免疫的基因具有重要意义。由于其快速发育、易于遗传操作、易于体内成像和化学筛选等特点，斑马鱼模型也可能对癌症研究有用。
