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Variable Lymphocyte Receptors: A Current Overview

  • Chapter
Pathogen-Host Interactions: Antigenic Variation v. Somatic Adaptations

Part of the book series: Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation ((RESULTS,volume 57))

Abstract

Jawless vertebrates represented by lampreys and hagfish mount antigen-specific immune responses using variable lymphocyte receptors. These receptors generate diversity comparable to that of T-cell and B-cell receptors by assembling multiple leucine-rich repeat modules with highly variable sequences. Although it is true that jawed and jawless vertebrates have structurally unrelated antigen receptors, their adaptive immune systems have much in common. Most notable is the conservation of lymphocyte lineages. It appears that specialized lymphocyte lineages emerged in a common vertebrate ancestor and that jawed and jawless vertebrates co-opted different antigen receptors within the context of such lymphocyte lineages.

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Zeev Pancer who passed away on April 20, 2014.

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Acknowledgements

Experimental work in my laboratory has been supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. I thank Dr. Yoichi Sutoh for his kind help with the preparation of figures.

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  1. Department of Pathology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, North 15 West 7, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan

    Masanori Kasahara

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Correspondence to Masanori Kasahara .

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  1. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Ellen Hsu

  2. Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Louis Du Pasquier

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Kasahara, M. (2015). Variable Lymphocyte Receptors: A Current Overview. In: Hsu, E., Du Pasquier, L. (eds) Pathogen-Host Interactions: Antigenic Variation v. Somatic Adaptations. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, vol 57. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20819-0_8

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