VLR-Based Adaptive Immunity
- 23 April 2012
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Immunology
- Vol. 30 (1), 203-220
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-immunol-020711-075038
Abstract
Lampreys and hagfish are primitive jawless vertebrates capable of mounting specific immune responses. Lampreys possess different types of lymphocytes, akin to T and B cells of jawed vertebrates, that clonally express somatically diversified antigen receptors termed variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs), which are composed of tandem arrays of leucine-rich repeats. The VLRs appear to be diversified by a gene conversion mechanism involving lineage-specific cytosine deaminases. VLRA is expressed on the surface of T-like lymphocytes; B-like lymphocytes express and secrete VLRB as a multivalent protein. VLRC is expressed by a distinct lymphocyte lineage. VLRA-expressing cells appear to develop in a thymus-like tissue at the tip of gill filaments, and VLRB-expressing cells develop in hematopoietic tissues. Reciprocal expression patterns of evolutionarily conserved interleukins and chemokines possibly underlie cell-cell interactions during an immune response. The discovery of VLRs in agnathans illuminates the origins of adaptive immunity in early vertebrates.Keywords
This publication has 72 references indexed in Scilit:
- A thymus candidate in lampreysNature, 2011
- The Evolution of Adaptive Immunity in VertebratesPublished by Elsevier BV ,2011
- Regulation of antigen‐receptor gene assembly in hagfishEMBO Reports, 2010
- Origin and evolution of the adaptive immune system: genetic events and selective pressuresNature Reviews Genetics, 2009
- Dual nature of the adaptive immune system in lampreysNature, 2009
- Evolution of Phosphorylation-Dependent Regulation of Activation-Induced Cytidine DeaminaseMolecular Cell, 2008
- The amphioxus genome and the evolution of the chordate karyotypeNature, 2008
- DNA Deamination in Immunity: AID in the Context of Its APOBEC RelativesAdvances in Immunology, 2007
- Evolution and diversification of lamprey antigen receptors: evidence for involvement of an AID-APOBEC family cytosine deaminaseNature Immunology, 2007
- Somatic diversification of variable lymphocyte receptors in the agnathan sea lampreyNature, 2004