State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, National Engineering Center of South China Sea for Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China; email:
Annu Rev Anim Biosci. 2014 Feb;2:235-58. doi: 10.1146/annurev-animal-031412-103634. Epub 2013 Nov 14.
Animal immune systems can be classified into those of innate immunity and those of adaptive immunity. It is generally thought that the former are universal for all animals and depend on germline-encoded receptors that recognize highly conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), whereas the latter are vertebrate specific and are mediated primarily by lymphocytes bearing a unique antigen receptor. However, novel adaptive or adaptive-like immunities have been found in invertebrates and jawless vertebrates, and extraordinarily complex innate immunities, created through huge expansions of many innate gene families, have recently been found in the cephalochordate amphioxus and the echinoderm sea urchin. These studies not only inspire immunologists to seek novel immune mechanisms in invertebrates but also raise questions about the origin and evolution of vertebrate immunities.
动物的免疫系统可分为固有免疫和适应性免疫。人们普遍认为前者对所有动物都是通用的，依赖于胚系编码的受体来识别高度保守的病原体相关分子模式（PAMPs），而后者是脊椎动物特有的，主要由携带独特抗原受体的淋巴细胞介导。然而，在无脊椎动物和无颌脊椎动物中发现了新的适应性或类似适应性的免疫，最近在头索动物文昌鱼和棘皮动物海胆中发现了非常复杂的固有免疫，这是通过许多固有基因家族的巨大扩张而产生的。这些研究不仅激发了免疫学家在无脊椎动物中寻找新的免疫机制，也提出了关于脊椎动物免疫起源和进化的问题。
