Invertebrate Immunity, Natural Transplantation Immunity, Somatic and Germ Cell Parasitism, and Transposon Defense

Malgorzata Kloc; Marta Halasa; Jacek Z Kubiak; Rafik M Ghobrial

doi:10.3390/ijms25021072

Invertebrate Immunity, Natural Transplantation Immunity, Somatic and Germ Cell Parasitism, and Transposon Defense

Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Jan 16;25(2):1072. doi: 10.3390/ijms25021072.

Authors

Malgorzata Kloc^{1

2

3}, Marta Halasa^{1

2}, Jacek Z Kubiak^{4

5}, Rafik M Ghobrial^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Houston Methodist Research Institute, Transplant Immunology, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
² Department of Surgery, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
³ Department of Genetics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
⁴ Laboratory of Molecular Oncology and Innovative Therapies, Military Institute of Medicine-National Research Institute (WIM-PIB), Szaserow 128, 04-141 Warsaw, Poland.
⁵ Dynamics and Mechanics of Epithelia Group, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes, University of Rennes, CNRS, UMR 6290, 35043 Rennes, France.

Abstract

While the vertebrate immune system consists of innate and adaptive branches, invertebrates only have innate immunity. This feature makes them an ideal model system for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of innate immunity sensu stricto without reciprocal interferences from adaptive immunity. Although invertebrate immunity is evolutionarily older and a precursor of vertebrate immunity, it is far from simple. Despite lacking lymphocytes and functional immunoglobulin, the invertebrate immune system has many sophisticated mechanisms and features, such as long-term immune memory, which, for decades, have been exclusively attributed to adaptive immunity. In this review, we describe the cellular and molecular aspects of invertebrate immunity, including the epigenetic foundation of innate memory, the transgenerational inheritance of immunity, genetic immunity against invading transposons, the mechanisms of self-recognition, natural transplantation, and germ/somatic cell parasitism.

Keywords: epigenetics; hemocyte; innate immunity; innate memory; invertebrate; transgenerational inheritance; transposons.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Adaptive Immunity
Animals
Cell Communication
Germ Cells*
Immunity, Innate*
Invertebrates

Grants and funding

MK, MH and RMG research was supported by the J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center fund at the Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We are also grateful for the support from William Stamps Farish Fund. JZK research was funded by subvention of the Polish Ministry of Education and Science, project no 612/2023 to JZK at WIM-PIB.