Innate immunity: from plants to humans

✍ Scribed by Niels Borregaard; Peter Elsbach; Tomas Ganz; Peter Garred; Arne Svejgaard

• Book ID: 104299204
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 246 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5699
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-5699(99)01570-4

✦ Synopsis

n recent years there has been a gradual shift in immunological focus away from the specific antigen recognition mechanisms of adaptive immunity back to primary host defence mechanisms. It has become clear that innate immune responses exhibit a degree of specificity and are more complex than was ever supposed. Studies of innate immunity have led to the discovery of common molecular mechanisms used for host defence in plants, insects and mammals. This includes the various receptors that recognize classes of microbial cell-surface molecules, the similar signal transduction pathways that activate transcription of genes related to host defence, and the ubiquitous cationic peptides and proteins that act as antimicrobial effectors.