Innate immunity in early chordates and the appearance of adaptive immunity

In the urochordate Ciona intestinalis some membrane Immunoglobulin superfamily members with ancestral features of antigen receptors are homologs of vertebrate adhesion molecules acting as virus receptors. They include the following: the junction adhesion molecule (reovirus receptor) (JAM), the Cortical thymocyte marker of Xenopus (CTX family) (Coxsackie's virus receptor) and the poliovirus receptor (PVR). In humans these genes belong to the same linkage group, of which 4 paralogous groups exist. This situation is consistent with the notion that the Ciona set of genes would correspond to a preduplication state. In addition, the human region 3q13 and its paralogs, harbour genes remotely related to the nectin family that can be detected in Protostomes (human CRTAM and CD80-86 related to Drosophila Beat). In addition, this linkage group contains several CDs important for the immune system CD 166, CD47 and many members of the tetraspanin family. The VC1-like core of the nectin is homologous to the VC1 core of the MHC-linked tapasin and to the VC1 segments of, for example, specific antigen receptors of vertebrates, and could be related to a primitive antigen receptor gene. It is suggested that the virus binding property of the members of this family was exploited, and that they were recruited in the vertebrate immune system following the introduction of the somatic rearrangement machinery. In this way the adaptive immune system could have developed from a set of receptors involved in a primitive local innate immunity involving NF-kappaB-mediated apoptosis. (C) 2004 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.