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ADAPTIVE CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNE RESPONSIVENESS IN JURASSIC AND CRETTACEOUS REPTILE: A MOLECULAR ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE DNA SEQUENCES CORRESPONDING TO MAMMALIAN T LYMPHOCYTE MARKERS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON THE APPEARANCE OF DISTINCT CELLULAR PHENOTYPES INVOLVED IN CELL-MEDIATED REACTION OF THE ADAPTIVE IMMUNE SYSTEM *1.

Thera Podd, Peter Osoar, U. Vanya, and Archie Opptrics. The Miskatonic University, Arkham, Massachussetts *2

Recent technologcal advances in the detection and isolation of nucleic acids from ancient fossil material have enabled investigators to probe the evolutionary steps leading to the development of the adaptive immune system in vertebrates. DNA was extracted from fossilized bone fragments from early Jurassic (Dilphosaurus, Plesiosaur, Syntarsus), Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (Brachiosaurus, Barosaurus, Protoarcheopteryx), and late Cretaceous (Albertosaurus, Majungothalus, Oviraptor) spesimens. The fragments were collected from fossils recovered at sites in Flobbsburg, Germany; Chinyong, Hunan province, China; Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada; West Mooville, Montana; and Safir, Ethiopia *3. Homologs of mammalian CD3, CD4 and CD8 were found in all specimens examined from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (~145 Mya) and late Cretaceous periods, but were absent in the early Jurassic specimens. DNA was extracted using the techniques described by Habilis et al (1998), and resuspended in buffered saline. Triplicate samples of each suspension were subjected to real time PCR using primers (AATCGGCTAGC and CGTATACGCGATCTAGC for CD3, TTTGCAAGCCGCGATTAC TGCCAGCTAGAACT for CD4, and CCAGACTAGTTCAGA and CTTATCCCAAGACA for CD8; all were obtained by House of Primers, Boston, Massachusetts). Amplified DNA sequences were analyzed on a Sony VAIO computer using the MatchIt program for DNA sequence comparisons. Statistical analysis of the sequence matching was done using Χ². Control sequences were obtained from goats, turtles, frogs and condors *4. A greater degree of homology for these molecules with modern mammals is seen in samples from saurischians, the order thought to be ancestral to mamals. Samples from fossils of ornithischian derivation showed a lower degree of homology. While molecular evidence for production of multiple immunoglobulin isotypes first appears in the jawed fisheses, the data presented here is the earliest evidence indicating a diversification of a T cell-like lineage into distinctive functional subsets. It remains to be established whether the subsets defined by these proto-T-cell markers are similar to modern mammalian T cell subsets. We wish to thank Arkham University and the H.P. Lovecraft Foundation for their financial support *5.

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1. shorten title, use sentence case. Bold uppercase is typographical shouting

2. abbreviate to MA

3. West Mooville?? You've gotta be kidding!

4. there will be plenty of space on the poster to describe techniques

5. reword support statement