As also a recent review in Cell on the "Quality Control in Self/Nonself Discrimination" points out (Boehm T. Cell 125: 845-858, 2006), comparative studies of the mechanisms that avoid self-mating in more ancient eukaryotes are thought to be of key relevance for shedding light on the control of specificity in self/nonself discrimination, as well as on the evolutionary emergence of the antigen receptors in the adaptive immune system. These studies, however, traditionally drive most attention on the self-incompatibility of plants, self-sterility and allo-recognition of tunicates, mating types of fungi. Scarce or no reference at all is made to ciliates. Nevertheless, the ciliate highly multiple mating-type systems are providing insightful information not only on the molecular basis of self/nonself recognition in more ancient organisms, but also on the central question of how new receptor/ligand pairs are generated in complex recognition systems. This information essentially derives from: (i) NMR and crystallographic analyses (mostly carried 24 out in collaboration with the Kurt Wuthrich’s laboratory at the ETH in Zurich) of the three-dimensional structures of a set of water-born protein signals (pheromones) produced by Euplotes species (Luporini et al. Curr. Pharm. Des. 12: 3015-3024, 2006), and (ii) the determination of the splicing mechanism by which the same cell controls its own specific diffusible signal and the (autocrine) binding receptor of this signal (Vallesi et al. Eukaryot. Cell 4: 1221-1227, 2005).

Self/nonself discrimination in ciliated Protozoa: the molecular basis. REPORT of the VIIIth meeting of the Italian Association for Developmental and Comparative Immunobiology (IADCI), Napoli.

VALLESI, Adriana;ALIMENTI, Claudio;
2007-01-01

Abstract

As also a recent review in Cell on the "Quality Control in Self/Nonself Discrimination" points out (Boehm T. Cell 125: 845-858, 2006), comparative studies of the mechanisms that avoid self-mating in more ancient eukaryotes are thought to be of key relevance for shedding light on the control of specificity in self/nonself discrimination, as well as on the evolutionary emergence of the antigen receptors in the adaptive immune system. These studies, however, traditionally drive most attention on the self-incompatibility of plants, self-sterility and allo-recognition of tunicates, mating types of fungi. Scarce or no reference at all is made to ciliates. Nevertheless, the ciliate highly multiple mating-type systems are providing insightful information not only on the molecular basis of self/nonself recognition in more ancient organisms, but also on the central question of how new receptor/ligand pairs are generated in complex recognition systems. This information essentially derives from: (i) NMR and crystallographic analyses (mostly carried 24 out in collaboration with the Kurt Wuthrich’s laboratory at the ETH in Zurich) of the three-dimensional structures of a set of water-born protein signals (pheromones) produced by Euplotes species (Luporini et al. Curr. Pharm. Des. 12: 3015-3024, 2006), and (ii) the determination of the splicing mechanism by which the same cell controls its own specific diffusible signal and the (autocrine) binding receptor of this signal (Vallesi et al. Eukaryot. Cell 4: 1221-1227, 2005).
2007
262
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11581/111433
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