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Essay
Nature 445, 153 (11 January 2007) | doi:10.1038/445153a; Published online 10 January 2007
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Concept Adaptive Immunity: Care for the community
Margaret McFall-Ngai1
- Margaret McFall-Ngai is in the Symbiosis Cluster and the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
Abstract
A memory-based immune system may have evolved in vertebrates because of the need to recognize and manage complex communities of beneficial microbes.
All vertebrates have a type of immunity known as adaptive immunity, which allows them to respond to each fresh encounter with the microbial world on the basis of past interactions. Invertebrates, however, rely entirely on the innate immune system, an ancient mechanism present in all animals that does not typically 'remember' previous encounters.
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