Editor's Summary
24 November 2005
Know thyself
The rejection of transplanted tissues is a puzzling phenomenon; it can be explained as a necessary evil of immune system function, but it could also be an evolutionary relic or a real function that we do not understand. The discovery of the first known non-vertebrate histocompatibility locus suggests that there is some truth in at least two of these suggestions. Colonies of the colonial sea-squirt Botryllus schlosseri that make contact either reject each other or undergo a natural transplantation reaction to produce a chimaera, depending on which version of a polymorphic gene called FuHC is present. It is the product of this gene that has now been found to be a member of the immunoglobulin family, similar to the major histocompatibility complex that encodes the proteins that target foreign molecules for immune cell recognition in vertebrates.
News and Views: Histocompatibility: Colonial match and mismatch
Distinguishing self from non-self is the underlying basis of immunity. Intriguingly, the genetic system that governs a natural process akin to tissue transplantation in vertebrates has been characterized in an invertebrate.
Gary W. Litman
doi:10.1038/438437a
Article: Isolation and characterization of a protochordate histocompatibility locus
Anthony W. De Tomaso, Spencer V. Nyholm, Karla J. Palmeri, Katherine J. Ishizuka, William B. Ludington, Katrina Mitchel and Irving L. Weissman
doi:10.1038/nature04150
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (309K) | Supplementary information