INNATE IMMUNE RECOGNITION AND CONTROL OF ADAPTIVE IMMUNE-RESPONSES

The immune system of high vertebrates consists of two components: inna te and adaptive. The innate immune system relies on a set of germ-line encoded receptors that recognize conserved molecular patterns found o nly in microorganisms. The adaptive immune system uses somatically gen erated antigen receptors which are clonally distributed on the two typ es of lymphocytes: T cells and B cells. These antigen receptors are ge nerated by random processes and, as a consequence, the general design of the adaptive immune system is based on clonal selection of lymphocy tes expressing receptors with particular specificities. Here we discus s the essential role of the innate immune system in the clonal selecti on of lymphocytes and activation of the adaptive immune responses.