Innate Immunity of Plants, Animals, and Humans
All living organisms are in a constant battle against their environment. Since uncontained microorganisms would simply overgrow all higher animals, the evolution of multicellular organisms required adequate and efficient defense mechanisms to protect thei
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Series Editor H.J. Gross, Institut für Biochemie, Biozentrum, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany, [email protected]
Holger Heine Editor
Innate Immunity of Plants, Animals, and Humans
Dr. Holger Heine Department of Immunology and Cell Biology Research Center Borstel Parkallee 22 23845 Borstel Germany [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-540-73929-6
e-ISBN 978-3-540-73930-2
Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology ISSN 0933-1891 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007935972 © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, roadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Preface
All living organisms are in a constant battle against their environment. Since uncontained microorganisms would simply overgrow all higher animals, from the beginning of the evolution of multicellular organisms the need was clearly evident for adequate and efficient defense mechanisms to protect their own integrity and to ensure their own survival. Usually, the first encounter with pathogens occurs at epithelial interfaces, which present the first barrier against invading pathogens and already comprises a number of mechanical and chemical defense mechanisms. However, in addition to these passive mechanisms an arsenal of active weapons also evolved. As it turned out, some of them were so efficient that basically all organisms rely at least partly on them: there is no known species that does not produce antimicrobial peptides, which represent very likely the most ancient immune defense molecules and the most common effector molecules of the innate immune response. Over recent decades, the appreciation of the innate immune system has vastly increased. A pivotal event and possibly the beginning of the modern era of innate immunity was Charles Janeway’s opening lecture at the annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposium of Quantitative biology in 1989. He hypothesized that recognition of certain patterns or characteristics of infectious microorganisms through pattern recognition receptors whose specificity is “hard-wired” into the genome is vitally important for the immune response. However, it took about seven years before the involvement of the Dros
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