What are the main differences between innate immunity and adaptive immunity? What will be an ...

Innate immune responses are initiated almost immediately after infection, whereas adaptive immunity takes longer to develop. Innate immunity uses generalized and invariant mechanisms to recognize pathogens. Examples of these are the receptors on phagocytes that recognize surface molecules shared by many different pathogens and stimulate phagocytosis, and serum proteins such as complement. Innate immunity is often unable to eradicate the pathogen completely, and even when it does, it does not produce immunity to reinfection. An adaptive immune response, in contrast, involves specific recognition of the particular pathogen by highly specific receptor on a subset of lymphocytes, which are selected from a pool of millions of lymphocytes each bearing receptors specific for different molecules. Adaptive immunity is often powerful enough to eradicate the infection and provides long-term protective immunity through immunological memory.