Drosophila has a primitive yet effective blood system with three types of haemocytes which function throughout different developmental stages and environmental stimuli. Haemocytes play essential roles in tissue modeling during embryogenesis and morphogenesis, and also in innate immunity. The open circulatory system of Drosophila makes haemocytes ideal signal mediators to cells and tissues in re...

During embryonic development, Drosophila macrophages (haemocytes) undergo a series of stereotypical migrations to disperse throughout the embryo. One major migratory route is along the ventral nerve cord (VNC), where haemocytes are required for the correct development of this tissue. We show, for the first time, that a reciprocal relationship exists between haemocytes and the VNC and that defec...

Haemocytes play an essential role in defending invertebrates against pathogens and parasites that enter their haemocoel. A primary defense response is encapsulation; a process in which haemocytes attach to the foreign organism and kill it. Whether encapsulation requires cooperation between specific subpopulations of haemocytes is unknown. Using purified subpopulations of haemocytes and an in vi...

The light organ crypts of the squid Euprymna scolopes permit colonization exclusively by the luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri. Because the crypt interior remains in contact with seawater, the squid must not only foster the specific symbiosis, but also continue to exclude other bacteria. Investigation of the role of the innate immune system in these processes revealed that macrophage-like haem...

The Drosophila larval cellular immune response involves cells (haemocytes) that can be recruited from a haematopoietic organ known as the lymph gland, as well as a sessile population of cells found just underneath the larval cuticle arranged in a segmental pattern. Overexpression of the Drosophila c-src homologue Src64B disrupts the sessile-haemocyte banding pattern. Though Src64B overexpressio...

During its life cycle, the helminth parasite Schistosoma mansoni uses the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata as an intermediate host to reproduce asexually generating cercariae for infection of the human definitive host. Following invasion of the snail, the parasite develops from a miracidium to a mother sporocyst and releases excretory-secretory products (ESPs) that likely influence the ou...

Phenoloxidase (PO), a melanin-synthesizing enzyme, found as a zymogen (proPO) in hemolymp, plays an important role in arthropod defence. In this study, a prophenoloxidase (proPO) cDNA was cloned from the haemocytes of swimming crab Portunus trituberculatus by a reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) method. Analysis of the nucleotide ...

pathogenic infection in tasar silkworm, antheraea mylitta drury. is common and there is a breed specific response regarding tolerance. observations reveal the possibility of differential response by haemocytes to microbial infection in different breeds. hence, the susceptibility of three eco-races of tasar silkworm viz. daba, sarihan and raily to antheraea mylitta cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus...

The neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) regulatory network is a complex system, which plays an indispensable role in the immunity of host. In this study, a neuroendocrine immunomodulatory axis (NIA)-like pathway mediated by the nervous system and haemocytes was characterized in the oyster Crassostrea gigas Once invaded pathogen was recognized by the host, the nervous system would temporally release neu...