Antibodies

[tansy]

I expect this is a naive question, but I was wondering how we evolved the ability to produce antibodies to fight off illnesses. Do you think the ability was already innate, or do you think some creatures started responding that way? (Sorry if not using quite correct terminology, but don't know much about this)

 

[Cactus Jack]

It's merely a function of the human body, and of other living beings.

 

[Strathos]

Evolution of the adaptive immune response - Immunobiology - NCBI Bookshelf

This article has some information

 

[tansy]

Evolution of the adaptive immune response - Immunobiology - NCBI Bookshelf

This article has some information

Thanks for the link . Phew! I got the general gist, but in order to understand all that properly, I think I might have to study biology for quite a while! Or have it put in simple diagrams that a 7 year old could clearly understand. Interesting that they still don't fully understand it themselves though. Still, I suppose there's still loads more to discover about DNA, genetics etc. Seems sometimes that they've only touched the tip of the iceberg

 

[Loudmouth]

Thanks for the link . Phew! I got the general gist, but in order to understand all that properly, I think I might have to study biology for quite a while! Or have it put in simple diagrams that a 7 year old could clearly understand. Interesting that they still don't fully understand it themselves though. Still, I suppose there's still loads more to discover about DNA, genetics etc. Seems sometimes that they've only touched the tip of the iceberg

After skimming the article, I would say that this is the important bit:

"A transposable element invaded a stretch of DNA, presumably a gene that was similar to an immunoglobulin gene or a T-cell receptor gene, and rapidly segregated the transposon sequences encoding the recombinase enzymes used for the invasion from the recognition sequences for these enzymes (Fig. 2). These remnants of the original transposon became the recombination signal sequences of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes."
Evolution of the adaptive immune response - Immunobiology - NCBI Bookshelf

We are able to produce billions of different antibodies by shuffling a set number of gene segments. It is analogous to shuffling a deck of cards and then dealing out hands to each of the B-cells. The origin of this process seems to be a transposon and recombinase enzymes that transposons use.

 

[tansy]

After skimming the article, I would say that this is the important bit:

"A transposable element invaded a stretch of DNA, presumably a gene that was similar to an immunoglobulin gene or a T-cell receptor gene, and rapidly segregated the transposon sequences encoding the recombinase enzymes used for the invasion from the recognition sequences for these enzymes (Fig. 2). These remnants of the original transposon became the recombination signal sequences of immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes."
Evolution of the adaptive immune response - Immunobiology - NCBI Bookshelf

We are able to produce billions of different antibodies by shuffling a set number of gene segments. It is analogous to shuffling a deck of cards and then dealing out hands to each of the B-cells. The origin of this process seems to be a transposon and recombinase enzymes that transposons use.

Thanks very much. That's narrowed it down a bit for me. I'll look into that some more