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The evolution of innate lymphoid cells

Nature Immunology volume 17, pages 790–794 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are the most recently discovered group of immune cells. Understanding their biology poses many challenges. We discuss here the current knowledge on the appearance of ILC subsets during evolution and propose how the connection between ILCs and T cells contributes to the robustness of immunity and hence to the fitness of the hosts.

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Figure 1: Differentiation and evolution of ILCs.
Figure 2: Phylogeny of ILC signature genes.
Figure 3: Innate and adaptive lymphocytes exhibit both complementarity and redundancy in immunity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Carpentier and N. Thakur for comparative transcriptomic analysis; and P. Golstein, Y. Kerdiles and R. Golub for critical reading and advice. Supported by the European Research Council (THINK Advanced Grant; Vivier laboratory), the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer (Equipe Labellisée; Vivier laboratory), INSERM (Vivier and Van de Pavert laboratories), CNRS (Vivier and Van de Pavert laboratories), Aix-Marseille University (to Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy; Vivier and Van de Pavert laboratories), the Institut Universitaire de France (E.V.), A*MIDEX (Van de Pavert laboratory), Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (AJE20150633331; Van de Pavert laboratory), Agence Nationale de Recherche (Immunodev; Van de Pavert laboratory), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the US National Institutes of Health (Cooper laboratory), the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Belz laboratory), the Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support (Belz laboratory), the Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Independent Research Institutes Infrastructure Support Scheme (Belz laboratory) and the Australian Research Council (Belz laboratory).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Aix-Marseille University UM2, Inserm, U1104, CNRS UMR7280, Marseille, France

    Eric Vivier & Serge A van de Pavert

  2. Hôpital de la Conception, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Marseille, Marseille, France

    Eric Vivier

  3. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Max D Cooper

  4. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Australia

    Gabrielle T Belz

  5. Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Gabrielle T Belz

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  1. Eric Vivier
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  2. Serge A van de Pavert
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  4. Gabrielle T Belz
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Correspondence to Eric Vivier or Gabrielle T Belz.

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E.V. is the cofounder of and a shareholder in Innate Pharma.

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Vivier, E., van de Pavert, S., Cooper, M. et al. The evolution of innate lymphoid cells. Nat Immunol 17, 790–794 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3459

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