Origin and Evolution of the Vertebrate Immune System

323 Pages·2000·11.448 MB·English

by  J. P. Rast, Z. Pancer, E. H. Davidson (auth.), Professor Dr. Louis Du Pasquier, Professor Gary W. Litman M.D. (eds.)

Current Topics in
Microbiology
248 and Immunology
Editors
R.W. Compans, Atlanta/Georgia
M. Cooper, Birmingham/Alabama
J.M. Hogle, Boston/Massachusetts· Y. Ito, Kyoto
H. Koprowski, Philadelphia/Pennsylvania· F. Melchers, Basel
M. Old stone, La Jolla/California· S. Olsnes, Oslo
M. Potter, Bethesda/Maryland· H. Saedler, Cologne
P.K. Vogt, La Jolla/California· H. Wagner, Munich
Springer
Berlin
Heidelberg
New York
Barcelona
Hong Kong
Lotfdon
Milan
Paris
Singapore
Tokyo
Origin and Evolution
of the Vertebrate
Immune System
Edited by L. Du Pasquier and G.W. Litman
With 81 Figures and 17 Tables
Springer
Professor Dr. LOUIS Du PASQUIER
Basel Institute for Immunlogy
Grenzacherstr. 487
CH-4005 Basel
Switzerland
e-mail: [email protected]
Professor GARY W. LITMAN, M.D.
University of South Florida
All Children's Hospital
801 6th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
USA
e-mail: [email protected]
Cover Illustration: Sometimes during his trip across Persia, Alexander the Great
encollntered a wonder/iii talking tree with the heads of all sorts 0( l'ertabrat~s, The editors
of Ihis volume hope that this "phylogenetic" tree will a/so talk 10 us allli bring n]essages of
truth concerning the immune system. (Hand colored copy of a persian miniature, found in
Delhi dllring the 10th 111lernatiOlwi Immunology Meeting, and representing the wonderful
talking tree of Alexander)
ISSN 0070-217X
ISBN -13:978-3-642-64078-0 e-ISBN -13 :978-3-642-59674-2
DOl: 10.10071978-3-642-59674-2
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Preface
The comparative approach to immunology can be traced to the
era of Pasteur and Metchnikov in which observations regarding
foreign recognition in invertebrates was a factor in the develop
ment of the principal concepts that created the foundation of
what now is the broad field of immunology. With each major
experimental and conceptual breakthrough, the classical, albeit
essential, question has been asked "are the immune systems of
phylogenetically primitive vertebrates and invertebrates similar to
that of mammals?" Somewhat surprisingly for the jawed verte
brates, the general answer has been a qualified form of "yes",
whereas for agnathans and invertebrate phyla it has been "no" so
far. The apparent abruptness in the appearance of the immune
system of vertebrates is linked to the introduction of the somatic
generation of the diversity of its antigen specific receptors.
Therefore the questions regarding the origin and evolution of the
specific immune system revolve around this phenomenon.
With respect to the origin of the system (aside from the or
igin of the rearranging machinery itself, the study of which is still
in its infancy) one can ask questions about the cellular and mo
lecular contexts in which the mechanism was introduced. Were
MHC class I and II molecules already there for selection or did
they come later in evolution as a necessary consequence? How
were the lymphocyte lineages committed to their various tasks;
how could clonal selection be introduced? What was the role of
the genes that were going to become the target for the intro
duction of the somatic r~arrangement? Were they already lym
phocyte receptors or were they involved in a totally different
function in other tissues of the body? How far can one trace the
ancestors of the T-cell receptor and immunoglobulin architec
tures? What was the size of the gene pool devoted to the immune
system at its beginning and what was its level of duplication?
With respect to later evolution, the following questions can
be asked: What will happen to the constellation of genes assem
bled in the primordial immune system? How did the families of
genes evolve in the context of each class of vertebrate? What has
VI Preface
been respected and what has been found merely accessory? How
were large families of diverse genes maintained? Is somatic di
versity used in the same way in all species? What has happened to
the innate immune system, elements of which have been inherited
from some invertebrate phyla?
Without giving all the answers, this book does offer the
outcome of several current lines of research aimed at elucidating
these questions. With the advent of sophisticated biochemical and
molecular genetic approaches, the delineation between the adap
tive immune system that is found in all jawed vertebrates and its
apparent absence in jawless vertebrates becomes increasingly
clearer as experimental strategies and thresholds have moved
closer to being capable of delineating possible relationships.
"Relationship" is perhaps the key word in the modern approaches
presented in this book. Indeed, instead of locking themselves into
a systematic and sterile opposition between vertebra~s and in
vertebrates, many authors in this volume have established bridges
across phyla. They have paved the way for those who seek to
monitor the change in commitment of cell lineage, specific receptor
expression, exon shuffling and so on that no doubt occurred during
the establishment of the gnathostome immune system.
Today's approach mostly involves description of newly dis
covered genes. It is less functional, less biochemical, and less
cellular than in the past, but at the same time it sets the rules of
the game by clearly establishing what has been conserved
throughout evolution. This is hopefully a temporary situation.
Returning to function, and especially regulation, will certainly be
necessary when structural data leave us with a paradoxical situ
ation, such as in the case of antibody diversity expression across
vertebrates. While all of them have an ample amount of diversity
available, only warm-blooded animals exploit its full potential.
Why is this the case? For ultimate understanding, more coordi
nation among scientists of different disciplines will be required.
We hope that these few chapters will stimulate research by
showing where we stand and by offering new avenues to explore,
some of which are presented here in an evolutionary context for
the first time.
This book is by no means comprehensive and can be com
plemented by reading recent issues of Immunological Reviews
(nos. 166, Immune systems of ectothermic vertebrates, and 167,
Geqomic organisation of the MHC: structure, origin and func
tion).
L. Du P ASQUIER
G. LITMAN
List of Contents
Bridge to Invertebrates
J.P. RAST, Z. PANCER, and E.H. DAVIDSON
New Approaches Towards an Understanding
of Deuterostome Immunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
M. MEISTER, C. HETRU, and J.A. HOFFMANN
The Antimicrobial Host Defense of Drosophila. . . . . . . .. 17
M. NONAKA
Origin and Evolution of the Complement System . . . . . .. 37
Major Vertebrate Evolutionary Issues
M. KASAHARA
Genome Paralogy: A New Perspective on the
Organization and Origin of the Major
Histocompatibility Complex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 53
A. ZAPATA and C.T. AMEMIYA
Phylogeny of Lower Vertebrates and Their
Immunological Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
Origin of Lymphocyte Lineages
J.D. HANSEN and J.F. McBLANE
Recombination-Activating Genes, Transposition, and the
Lymphoid-Specific Combinatorial Immune System:
A Common Evolutionary Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 111
M.K. ANDERSON and E.Y. ROTHENBERG
Transcription Factor Expression in Lymphocyte
Development: Clues to the Evolutionary Origins
of Lymphoid Cell Lineages? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 137
Origin of Receptors
L. Du P ASQUIER
The Phylogenetic Origin of Antigen-Specific Receptors. .. 159
VIII List of Contents
Evolution of Receptors
E. BENGTEN, M. WILSON, N. MILLER, L.W. CLEM,
L. PILSTROM, and G.W. WARR
Immunoglobulin Isotypes: Structure, Function,
and Genetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 189
T. OTA, T. SITNIKOVA, and M. NEI
Evolution of Vertebrate Immunoglobulin Variable
Gene Segments ................................ 221
Elasmobranchs
M.F. FLAJNIK and L.L. RUMFELT
The Immune System of Cartilaginous Fish. . . . . . . . . . .. 249
J.A. YODER and G.W. LITMAN
Immune-Type Diversity in the Absence of Somatic
Rearrangement ...... '.' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 271
Somatic Diversification
S.S. LEE, A. GREENBERG, and E. Hsu
Evolution and Somatic Diversification
of Immunoglobulin Light Chains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 285
TCR/CD3 Complex
T.W.F. GOBEL and L. BOLLIGER
Evolution of the T Cell Receptor Signal
Transduction Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 303
Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 321
List of Contributors
(Their addresses can be found at the beginning of their respective
chapters.)
AMEMIYA, c.T. 67 McBLANE, J.F. III
ANDERSON, M.K. 137 MEISTER, M. 17
BENGTEN, E. 189 MILLER, N. 189
BOLLIGER, L. 303 NEI, M. 221
CLEM, L.W. 189 NONAKA, M. 37
DAVIDSON, E.H. 3 OTA, T. 221
Du P ASQUlER, L. 160 PANCER, Z. 3
FLAJNIK, M.F. 249 PILSTROM, L. 189
GOBEL, T.W.F. 303 RAST, J.P. 3
GREENBERG, A. 285 ROTHENBERG, E.V. 137
HANSEN, J.D. III RUMFELT, L.L. 249
HETRU, C. 17 SITNIKOVA, T. 221
HOFFMANN, J.A. 17 WARR, G.W. 189
Hsu, E. 285 WILSON, M. 189
KASAHARA, M. 53 YODER, J.A. 271
LEE, S.S. 285 ZAPATA, A. 67
LITMAN, G.W. 271
Bridge to Invertebrates