INSECT IMMUNITY - EVOLUTIONARY ROOTS OF THE MAMMALIAN INNATE IMMUNE-SYSTEM

The innate immune system of vertebrates was considered as a survival o f ancient antimicrobial systems that have become obsolescent by the em ergence of adaptive immunity. Despite the fact that innate immunity la cks the elegance of genetic recombination mechanism to produce trillio ns of specific clones of immune cells and shows no memory, that view i s out of date. Today, the innate immune system is rather regarded to b e essential to the function of adaptive immunity by dictating the cond uct of the acquired immune response [1] with the help of cytokines, co mplement, lectin receptors, antigen-reactive T-lymphocytes and B7.1, B 7.2 proteins on B cells [2]. This review focuses on recent studies of insect immunology and summarises the currently known similarities betw een the innate immune system in insects and in vertebrates. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.