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Molecular characterization of the immune system: emergence of proteins, processes, and domains

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Abstract

Many genes and proteins are required to carry out the processes of innate and adaptive immunity. For many studies, including systems biology, it is necessary to have a clear and comprehensive definition of the immune system, including the genes and proteins that take part in immunological processes. We have identified and cataloged a large portion of the human immunology-related genes, which we call the essential immunome. The 847 identified genes and proteins were annotated, and their chromosomal localizations were compared to the mouse genome. Relation to disease was also taken into account. We identified numerous pseudogenes, many of which are expressed, and found two putative new genes. We also carried out an evolutionary analysis of immune processes based on gene orthologs to gain an overview of the evolutionary past and molecular present of the human immune system. A list of genes and proteins were compiled. A comprehensive characterization of the member genes and proteins, including the corresponding pseudogenes is presented. Immunome genes were found to have three types of emergence in independent studies of their ontologies, domains, and functions.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Martti Tolvanen for sharing with us his expertise on the content of immunome list, and Kathryn Rannikko for her help in collecting and handling the immunome data. We also thank the Medical Research Fund of Tampere University Hospital and the CAMKIN Research Network of the European Commission for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Technology, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    Csaba Ortutay, Markku Siermala & Mauno Vihinen

  2. Research Unit, Tampere University Hospital, 33520, Tampere, Finland

    Mauno Vihinen

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  1. Csaba Ortutay
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  2. Markku Siermala
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Correspondence to Mauno Vihinen.

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Ortutay, C., Siermala, M. & Vihinen, M. Molecular characterization of the immune system: emergence of proteins, processes, and domains. Immunogenetics 59, 333–348 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00251-007-0191-0

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