Fourteen contributions address issues related to the immune system and its evolution from a functional biological point of view. Among the topics: adaptive immune responses in insects, biological individuality and disease, evolutionary origins of immunoglobulin genes, the phylogenetic conservation of cytokines, mechanisms of molecular evolution in the immunoglobulin superfamily. The introduction presents an overview of the mammalian immune system so that nonimmunologists can delve into the phylogenesis of immunity without having to refer to a basic text. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
This volume discusses recent advances in research regarding the evolution of specific and nonspecific defense responses in a taxonomically diverse array of species. Topics regarding invertebrates include the protective mechanisms (cellular and molecular) employed by insects, the protective roles of lectins, and the self-nonself discrimination revealed by tissue incompatibility reactions. With vertebrates, the evolution of the immunoglobulin-related superfamily of recognition molecules (including immunoglobulins and the major histocompatibility complex molecules) is examined over several chapters. Other topics reviewed include the evolution of nonimmunoglobulin mediators of defense (e.g., cytokines and eicosanoids), lymphocyte subpopulations (including effects of ambient temperature on function) and the phylogenetic emergence of natural killer cells. Phylogenesis of Immune Functions provides invaluable information for evolutionary biologists, as well as all immunologists and other researchers interested in discovering how inhabitants in our increasingly threatened biosphere protect themselves against environmental pathogens and toxins.
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