The Accidental Immune System
Long ago, a wandering piece of DNA—perhaps from a microbe—created a key strategy
An ancient infection may have endowed all vertebrates with their sophisticated immune system, which is based on DNA cutting and pasting.
References:
Agrawal, A., Q.M. Eastman, and D.G. Shatz. 1998. Implications of transposition mediated by V(D)J-recombination proteins RAG1 and RAG2 for origins of antigen-specific immunity. Nature 394(Aug. 20):744.
Hiom, K., M. Melek, and M. Gellert. 1998. DNA transposition by the RAG1 and RAG2 proteins: A possible source of oncogenic translocations. Cell 94(Aug. 21):463.
Plasterk, R. 1998. Ragtime jumping. Nature 394(Aug. 20):718.
Further Readings:
Marchalonis, J.J., and S.F. Schluter. 1998. A stochastic model for the rapid emergence of specific vertebrate immunity incorporating horizontal transfer of systems enabling duplication and combinatorial diversification. Journal of Theoretical Biology 193:429.
Roth, D.B., and N.L. Craig. 1998. VDJ recombination: A transposase goes to work. Cell 94(Aug. 21):411.
Thompson, C.B. 1995. New insights into V(D)J recombination and its role in the evolution of the immune system. Immunity 3(November):531.
Sources:
Martin Gellert
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Bethesda, MD 20892-0540John J. Marchalonis
University of Arizona
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
P.O. Box 24-5049
Tucson, AZ 85724-5049Ronald Plasterk
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Division of Molecular Biology
Plesmanlaan 121
1066cx Amsterdam
NetherlandsDavid G. Schatz
Yale University School of Medicine
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Section of Immunobiology
New Haven, CT 06510Craig B. Thompson
University of Chicago
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
Gwen Knapp Center for Lupus and Immunology Research
Chicago, IL 60637
From Science News, Vol. 154, No. 19, November 7, 1998, p.
302.
Copyright Ó 1998 by Science Service.
copyright 1998 ScienceService
