Evolutionary immunology has entered a new era. Classical studies, using just a handful of model animal species, combined with clinical observations, provided an outline of how innate and adaptive immunity work together to ensure tissue homeostasis and to coordinate the fight against infections. However, revolutionary advances in cellular and molecular biology, genomics and methods of genetic modification now offer unprecedented opportunities. They provide immunologists with the possibility to consider, at unprecedented scale, the impact of the astounding phenotypic diversity of vertebrates on immune system function. This Perspective is intended to highlight some of the many interesting, but largely unexplored, biological phenomena that are related to immune function among the roughly 60,000 existing vertebrate species. Importantly, hypotheses arising from such wide-ranging comparative studies can be tested in representative and genetically tractable species. The emerging general principles and the discovery of their evolutionarily selected variations may inspire the future development of novel therapeutic strategies for human immune disorders.

进化免疫学进入了一个新时代。仅使用少数模型动物物种的经典研究与临床观察相结合，提供了先天免疫和适应性免疫如何协同工作以确保组织稳态并协调对抗感染的概述。然而，细胞和分子生物学、基因组学和基因修饰方法的革命性进步现在提供了前所未有的机遇。它们为免疫学家提供了以前所未有的规模考虑脊椎动物惊人的表型多样性对免疫系统功能的影响的可能性。本视角旨在强调与大约 60,000 种现有脊椎动物物种中的免疫功能相关的许多有趣但基本上未经探索的生物现象中的一些。重要的是，这种广泛的比较研究得出的假设可以在具有代表性和遗传上易处理的物种中进行检验。新兴的一般原则及其进化选择变异的发现可能会激发人类免疫疾病新治疗策略的未来发展。