Question

What is the major benefit of the specific defense system?
A. Specific defense system acts as a barrier to the foreign invaders
B. Specific defenses provide a quicker response than non-specific defenses
C. Specific defenses are generated no matter what the situation is
D. Specific defenses can produce immunity

Answer 1

The immune system has mainly two types of immunity:
Innate/Inborn immunity: This type of immunity is present in the individual from birth.
Adaptive immunity: Acquired by the individual after birth.

Complete answer:
There are some certain characteristics of both the types of immunity that we need to know before knowing the answer.
1. Innate/Inborn immunity:
It is the oldest, evolutionary inherited immunity.
It provides non-specific responses.
It doesn’t generate immunity.
Consists of various barriers like physical, physiological, cellular barriers.
2. Adaptive immunity:
Evolutionary advanced immunity is mainly provided by lymphocytes.
Ability to provide specific response to specific response to specific pathogen.
Ability to provide response to varieties of pathogens.
Ability to generate memories of the pathogen’s first encounter with the body.
Ability to recognize self and non-self-antigens/cells.
Now, we shall consider each of the following options.
As discussed above, the innate immunity protects the body from pathogen attack through various barriers. It is to be remembered that if these barriers fail, then only the pathogen enters inside the body and then specific defense reactions come into action.
The first and the rapid response is provided as soon as a pathogen attacks the body in the non-specific response. It is like firing a gun blindly without knowing who is the real enemy. The specific defense reaction procedure is overall complex.
Unless and until a pathogen is detected by the memory B-cell or macrophages, the specific defense is not activated. But the non-specific defense remains activated every time. Like the saliva in our mouth contains lysozyme enzyme which is a physiological barrier. It is secreted every time whether or not any pathogen is detected.
The specific defense system can create memories of the encounter with the pathogen and thus, they help us to build immunity against that particular pathogen.
Non-specific defense system cannot generate any memory and keeps on functioning with the evolutionary inherited mechanisms.

Note:
The most important thing to note down here is that all pathogens first get encountered and checked by the non-specific defense system. Only when this immunity system fails, the specific defense system comes into action.