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Related Concept Videos

Complement System01:27

Complement System

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The complement system is a group of approximately 20 plasma proteins that strengthen the body's defenses against infections through opsonization, inflammation, and cell lysis. Opsonization involves coating pathogens with complement proteins, making them more recognizable and facilitating phagocyte engulfment. Certain complement proteins induce inflammation that attracts immune cells to the site of infection. Cell lysis involves the destruction of pathogens through the formation of a...
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Evolution of New Traits in Microbes01:24

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

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Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...
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Antimicrobial Proteins01:23

Antimicrobial Proteins

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Antimicrobial proteins are important components of the immune system. They aid the body in combating pathogens by either killing them directly or hindering their replication processes. Four main types of antimicrobial substances are interferons, the complement system, iron-binding proteins, and antimicrobial proteins.
Interferons
Interferons (IFNs) are proteins produced by lymphocytes, macrophages, and fibroblasts infected with viruses. While IFNs cannot prevent viruses from entering and...
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Complementation Tests00:49

Complementation Tests

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A complementation test is a simple cross to identify whether the two mutations are located on the same gene or different genes. It was first performed by Edward Lewis in the 1940s while working on fruit flies. He developed the test to identify the location and arrangement of different mutations on chromosomes.
Organisms heterozygous for different mutations are crossed pairwise in all combinations. If present on different genes, the mutations can complement each other by providing the missing...
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Protein Complexes with Interchangeable Parts01:57

Protein Complexes with Interchangeable Parts

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Groups of proteins may form a complex where each protein in this complex has a different role in the overall execution of the complex’s function. Often some of the proteins in the complex can be replaced by a closely related variant to give a complex that contains many of the same components yet is functionally distinct.
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Transduction01:16

Transduction

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Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome...
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Updated: Apr 30, 2026

High-resolution Melting PCR for Complement Receptor 1 Length Polymorphism Genotyping: An Innovative Tool for Alzheimer's Disease Gene Susceptibility Assessment
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High-resolution Melting PCR for Complement Receptor 1 Length Polymorphism Genotyping: An Innovative Tool for Alzheimer's Disease Gene Susceptibility Assessment

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Evolution of the complement system.

Masaru Nonaka1

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan, mnonaka@biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

Sub-Cellular Biochemistry
|May 7, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The complement system, crucial for body defense, originated over 500 million years ago in early animals. Its evolution involved gene duplication and component recruitment, leading to modern systems, while some lineages lost it entirely.

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Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • The complement system is a key component of innate immunity, comprising over 30 proteins.
  • Its evolutionary origins and diversification are crucial for understanding immune system development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To trace the evolutionary history of the complement system.
  • To identify the ancestral components and activation pathways.
  • To understand the diversification of the complement system in different animal lineages.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative genomics analysis of complement system components across diverse taxa.
  • Phylogenetic reconstruction to infer ancestral states.
  • Analysis of gene duplication events and protein recruitment.

Main Results:

  • A primitive complement system, including C3, Bf, and MASP, existed in the common ancestor of eumetazoa (>500 million years ago).
  • Early complement activation likely resembled mammalian lectin and alternative pathways, primarily mediating opsonization and inflammation.
  • The modern complement system evolved in jawed vertebrates through gene duplication and the addition of classical and lytic pathways.

Conclusions:

  • The complement system has a deep evolutionary origin, predating the split between major animal phyla.
  • Independent loss of the complement system occurred multiple times in protostomes.
  • The evolution of the complement system highlights gene duplication and component recruitment as key drivers of immune system complexity.