Without a canonical adaptative immune system, invertebrates fully rely on the innate immune system. In other words, invertebrates are not able to generate somatic diversity and specificity through V(D)J recombination. Fitness and natural selection have given rise to various alternative strategies in aquatic invertebrates to survive in pathogen-rich environments. Many novel mechanisms have been recently found to create immune response diversity and specificity in the aquatic invertebrates. For example, effective immune reorganization with specificity has been evolved in sea urchin, amphioxus, and mollusks via the massive expansion of innate immune receptors. Hyper-variation of immune receptors was found in the aquatic snail by somatic diversification of fibrinogen-related proteins coupled with immunoglobulin domain. However, the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms of immune diversity in aquatic invertebrates are still not well understood.
Do invertebrates have novel immune responses? If the answer is “yes”, what are the genetic and molecular mechanisms of those novel traits? How about their evolutionary history, were they species-/clade-specific or did they originate in ancestral metazoans? In this research topic, we aim at gathering articles exploring the novel immune mechanisms of aquatic invertebrates and their evolution by integrating state-of-the-art analyses including molecular immunology, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and imaging. Therefore, this article collection focused on the aspects of comparative and molecular immunology in aquatic invertebrates with a focus on novel immune genes, proteins, pathways, regulations, etc.
We welcome and consider studies to explore diversity, organization, and regulation of immunity in marine and freshwater invertebrates including but not limited to Original Research Articles, Review articles, Methods, Brief Research Reports, and Perspective articles on the following subtopics:
1. Molecular mechanism of immune response in aquatic invertebrates
2. Cellular components of the innate immune system of aquatic invertebrates
3. Functional characterization of innate immune molecules in aquatic invertebrates
4. Evolutionary history of immune genes and pathways of aquatic invertebrates
5. Comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of immune response in aquatic invertebrates
Without a canonical adaptative immune system, invertebrates fully rely on the innate immune system. In other words, invertebrates are not able to generate somatic diversity and specificity through V(D)J recombination. Fitness and natural selection have given rise to various alternative strategies in aquatic invertebrates to survive in pathogen-rich environments. Many novel mechanisms have been recently found to create immune response diversity and specificity in the aquatic invertebrates. For example, effective immune reorganization with specificity has been evolved in sea urchin, amphioxus, and mollusks via the massive expansion of innate immune receptors. Hyper-variation of immune receptors was found in the aquatic snail by somatic diversification of fibrinogen-related proteins coupled with immunoglobulin domain. However, the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms of immune diversity in aquatic invertebrates are still not well understood.
Do invertebrates have novel immune responses? If the answer is “yes”, what are the genetic and molecular mechanisms of those novel traits? How about their evolutionary history, were they species-/clade-specific or did they originate in ancestral metazoans? In this research topic, we aim at gathering articles exploring the novel immune mechanisms of aquatic invertebrates and their evolution by integrating state-of-the-art analyses including molecular immunology, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and imaging. Therefore, this article collection focused on the aspects of comparative and molecular immunology in aquatic invertebrates with a focus on novel immune genes, proteins, pathways, regulations, etc.
We welcome and consider studies to explore diversity, organization, and regulation of immunity in marine and freshwater invertebrates including but not limited to Original Research Articles, Review articles, Methods, Brief Research Reports, and Perspective articles on the following subtopics:
1. Molecular mechanism of immune response in aquatic invertebrates
2. Cellular components of the innate immune system of aquatic invertebrates
3. Functional characterization of innate immune molecules in aquatic invertebrates
4. Evolutionary history of immune genes and pathways of aquatic invertebrates
5. Comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of immune response in aquatic invertebrates
