Ancient Jawless Vertebrates Used Novel Immune Responses

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Image: The sea lamprey is a modern representative of the ancient jawless vertebrates. Researchers at UMBIacutes Center of Marine Biotechnology are studying the lamprey to better understand the immune system of humans and other jawed vertebrates. Cred ...
Image: The sea lamprey is a modern representative of the ancient jawless vertebrates. Researchers at UMBI's Center of Marine Biotechnology are studying the lamprey to better understand the immune system of humans and other jawed vertebrates. Credit: Ulrike Klenke and Zeev Pancer, Center of Marine Biotechnology, UMBI, Baltimore, Md.

Researchers recently discovered that the sea lamprey, a modern representative of ancient jawless vertebrates, fights invading pathogens by generating up to 100 trillion unique receptors. These receptors, referred to as VLRs, are proteins and function like antibodies and T-cell receptors, sentinels of the immune system in all jawed vertebrates, including humans.


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