the identification of lymphocyte-like cells and lymphoid-related genes in amphioxus indicates the twilight for the emergency of adaptive immune systemlymphocyte-like细胞的识别和lymphoid-related基因在文昌鱼代表的《暮光之城》的适应性免疫系统的紧急.pdfVIP

The Identification of Lymphocyte-Like Cells and Lymphoid-Related Genes in Amphioxus Indicates the Twilight for the Emergency of Adaptive Immune System Gonghua Huang., Xiaojin Xie., Yan Han, Lifei Fan, Jie Chen, Chunyan Mou, Lei Guo, Hui Liu, Qinfen Zhang, Shangwu Chen, Meiling Dong, Jianzhong Liu, Anlong Xu* State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, The Open Laboratory for Marine Functional Genomics of State High-Tech Development Program, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China To seek evidence of a primitive adaptive immune system (AIS) before vertebrate, we examined whether lymphocytes or lymphocyte-like cells and the related molecules participating in the lymphocyte function existed in amphioxus. Anatomical analysis by electron microscopy revealed the presence of lymphocyte-like cells in gills, and these cells underwent morphological changes in response to microbial pathogens that are reminiscent of those of mammalian lymphocytes executing immune response to microbial challenge. In addition, a systematic comparative analysis of our cDNA database of amphioxus identified a large number of genes whose vertebrate counterparts are involved in lymphocyte function. Among these genes, several genes were found to be expressed in the vicinity of the lymphocyte-like cells by in situ hybridization and up-regulated after exposure to microbial pathogens. Our findings in the amphioxus indicate the twilight for the emergency of AIS before the invertebrate-vertebrate transition during evolution. Citation: Huang G, Xie X, Han Y, Fan L, Chen J, et al (2007) The Identification of Lymphocyte-Like Cells and Lymphoid-Related Genes in Amphioxus Indicates the Twilight for the Emergency of Adaptive Immune System. PLoS ONE 2(2): e206. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000206 INTRODUCTION