Immune defenses provide resistance against infectious disease that is critical to survival. But immune defenses are costly, and limited resources allocated to immunity are not available for other physiological or developmental processes. We propose a framework for explaining variation in patterns of investment in two important subsystems of anti-pathogen defense: innate (non-specific) and acqui...

munity-related GTPase M) and NOD2 (nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2)] results in the development of immune-related diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease [2] . Autophagy represents an ancient immune defense strategy present in flies. Importantly, as flies lack an adaptive immune system, the function of autophagy in cellintrinsic innate immunity can be...

One of the most fundamental questions in immunology pertains to the recognition of non-self, which for the most part means microbes. How do we initially realize that we have been inoculated with microbes, and how is the immune response ignited? Genetic studies have made important inroads into this question during the past decade, and we now know that in mammals, a relatively small number of rec...

COMMENTARY We would like to comment on the comprehensive review of Karantanos and Gazouli in Annals of Gastroenterology [1] about genetics and innate immunity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The authors appreciate the important role of innate immune sensing and the production of antimicrobial peptides in maintaining the integrity of the mucosal barrier. Pertinent studies on the subject are...

It is appreciated that the marked increase in the prevalence of asthma over the past few decades reflects changes in environmental exposures and living conditions associated with modern lifestyles.1 Of particular interest is the documentation of a protective effect of exposures associated with traditional farming, the influence of which has waned with increased urbanization and the advent of me...

The ability to discriminate between selfand nonself-molecules is characteristic of all living organisms. This feature forms the basis for the activation of innate immune responses uponmicrobial attack. Ifmicrobes bypass the external physical barrier, plants have evolved two classes of immune receptors to detect nonself-molecules to prevent further pathogen progress. One class consists of membra...