Invertebrate Immune Systems

First observations of the aquatic invertebrate fauna in ephemeral Atacama River (22° S, Antofagasta Region, Chile)

The invertebrate communities of the northern Chilean rivers are characterised by their marked endemism andspecificity of their community structure in different basins. The river systems located in the Atacama Desert are endorheicand are affected by the rainy period of January-February commonly known as the “Bolivian winter“. The present study isthe first report on the observations of arthropods...

Quasi - Specific , or Nonspecific ? Specific , − Invertebrate Immune Systems

Salivary Glands and the Facial Nerve

tabolites between parasite and host tissues, or may inactivate parasite enzyme systems. Two major features of the vertebrate immune response are apparently undeveloped in invertebrates, namely, specificity, the complementarity between an antibody-combining site and a particular antigenic determinant, and memory, the increased responsiveness to foreign material as a result of previous antigenic ...

Biological Inspiration for Artificial Immune Systems

Artificial immune systems (AISs) to date have generally been inspired by naive biological metaphors. This has limited the effectiveness of these systems. In this position paper two ways in which AISs could be made more biologically realistic are discussed. We propose that AISs should draw their inspiration from organisms which possess only innate immune systems, and that AISs should employ syst...

Evaluation of an innate immune reaction to parasites in earthworms.

Encapsulation is an essential process of the invertebrate immune system and includes the prophenoloxidase (proPO) cascade. We present an assay for evaluating this immune response, now newly adapted to earthworms. Coelomic fluid is withdrawn and coelomocytes are stained with l-Dopa. We studied assay repeatability and the correlation between number of PO-active cells and infection level of the pa...