Immunological Diversity Is a Cornerstone of Organismal Defense and Allorecognition across Metazoa

Abstract

The ongoing arms race between hosts and microbes has fueled the evolution of novel strategies for diversifying the molecules involved in immune responses. Characterization of immune systems from an ever-broadening phylogenetic range of organisms reveals that there are many mechanisms by which this diversity can be generated and maintained. Diversification strategies operate at the level of populations, genomes, genes, and even individual transcripts. Lineage-specific innovations have been cataloged within the immune systems of both invertebrates and vertebrates. Furthermore, somatic diversification of immune receptor genes has now been described in jawless vertebrates and some invertebrate species. In addition to pathogen detection, immunological diversity plays important roles in several distinct allorecognition systems. In this Brief Review, we highlight some of the evolutionary innovations employed by a variety of metazoan species to generate the molecular diversity required to detect a vast array of molecules in the context of both immune response and self/nonself-recognition.