A central question for immunology is: what does the immune system recognize and according to which principles does this kind of recognition work? Immunology has been dominated by the idea of recognizing molecular structures and triggering an appropriate immune response when facing non-self or danger. Recently, characterizations in terms of function have turned out to be more conserved and explanatory in microbiota research than taxonomic composition for understanding microbiota-host interactions. Starting from a conceptual analysis of the notions of structure and function, I raise the title question whether it is possible for the immune system to recognize microbial functions. I argue that this is indeed the case, making the claim that some function-associated molecular patterns are not indicative of the presence of certain taxa (‘‘who is there’’) but of biochemical activities and effects (‘‘what is going on’’). In addition, I discuss case studies which show that there are immunological sensors that can directly detect microbial activities, irrespective of their specific structural manifestation. At the same time, the discussed account puts the causal role notions of function on a more realist and objective basis.
...More
Article
Pierre-Olivier Méthot;
(2016)
La médecine (évolutive) entre individu et population : l’apport de la microbiologie au problème de l’individualité biologique
(/isis/citation/CBB976405663/)
Article
Vanessa Triviño;
Javier Suárez;
(2020)
Holobionts: Ecological communities, hybrids, or biological individuals? A metaphysical perspective on multispecies systems
(/isis/citation/CBB373591189/)
Article
M. H. V. van Regenmortel;
(2016)
The metaphor that viruses are living is alive and well, but it is no more than a metaphor
(/isis/citation/CBB997086708/)
Article
Miguel Escribano-Cabeza;
(2020)
Fish and Fishpond. an Ecological Reading of G.W. Leibniz’s Monadology §§ 63–70
(/isis/citation/CBB397286416/)
Essay Review
Schlosser, Gerhard;
(2003)
Naturalizing Functions: Unity beyond Pluralism?
(/isis/citation/CBB001566903/)
Thesis
Kym Weed;
(2018)
Our Microbes: Imagining Human Interdependence with Bacteria in American Literature, Science, and Culture, 1880-1920
(/isis/citation/CBB507631304/)
Article
James Stark;
(2023)
Making Microbes: Theorizing the Invisible in Historical Scholarship
(/isis/citation/CBB108538466/)
Article
Alex Nading;
(2016)
Evidentiary Symbiosis: On Paraethnography in Human–Microbe Relations
(/isis/citation/CBB414849345/)
Book
Patrick Forterre;
(2016)
Microbes from Hell
(/isis/citation/CBB896878206/)
Article
Jonathan Birch;
(2019)
Inclusive fitness as a criterion for improvement
(/isis/citation/CBB535828538/)
Article
Wouters, Arno G.;
(2003)
Four Notions of Biological Function
(/isis/citation/CBB000340829/)
Article
Anderson, Warwick;
Mackay, Ian R.;
(2014)
Fashioning the Immunological Self: The Biological Individuality of F. Macfarlane Burnet
(/isis/citation/CBB001214546/)
Article
James DiFrisco;
(2017)
Functional explanation and the problem of functional equivalence
(/isis/citation/CBB378954890/)
Article
Aaron Wells;
(2020)
Kant, Linnaeus, and the economy of nature
(/isis/citation/CBB872058525/)
Book
McLaughlin, Peter;
(2001)
What Functions Explain: Functional Explanation and Self-Reproducing Systems
(/isis/citation/CBB000502485/)
Article
Ulrich Krohs;
(2015)
Can functionality in evolving networks be explained reductively?
(/isis/citation/CBB052973474/)
Book
Gayon, Jean;
de Ricqlès, Armand;
(2010)
Les fonctions: des organismes aux artifacts
(/isis/citation/CBB001023153/)
Article
Karina Alleva;
José Díez;
Lucia Federico;
(2017)
Models, theory structure and mechanisms in biochemistry: The case of allosterism
(/isis/citation/CBB541545262/)
Article
Maund, Barry;
(2000)
Proper Functions and Aristotelian Functions in Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB000770650/)
Article
Tyler D. P. Brunet;
W. Ford Doolittle;
Joseph P. Bielawski;
(2021)
The role of purifying selection in the origin and maintenance of complex function
(/isis/citation/CBB268148463/)
Be the first to comment!