| The innate immune responses of plants and animals provide a first line of defense against invading microbes. Toll-like receptors are key participants in that response through the recognition of molecular 'patterns' expressed by pathogens. In addition to Toll-like receptors, many other types of innate proteins also respond to pathogens and are required for other immune functions. Papers describing many of these 'non-Toll-like receptor' proteins, such as C-type lectins in mammals and NB-LRR proteins in plants, are relatively new to the field of immunology. With help from experts in both animal and plant immunology, we have assembled an annotated list of classic papers that describe four prominent classes of innate immune receptors. We gratefully acknowledge the following people for their help in selecting these landmark papers: Carl Figdor, Peter Murray, Sheng Yang He, John McDowell, Francesco Colucci, Gordon Brown, Paul Leibson, Anthony Coyle, Alan Ezekowitz, Ruslan Medzhitov, Roger Innes, Marco Colonna, Caetano Reis e Sousa, Dana Philpott, Philippe Sansonetti, Gabriel Nunez, Eric Vivier, Stephan Bauer, Lewis Lanier, Jürg Tschopp, Shizuo Akira and Fabio Martinon. |
