The Invertebrate Immunocyte: A Complex and Versatile Model for Immunological, Developmental, and Environmental Research.

The knowledge of comparative and developmental immunobiology has grown over the years and has been strengthened by the contributions of multi-omics research. High-performance microscopy, flow cytometry, scRNA sequencing, and the increased capacity to handle complex data introduced by machine learning have allowed the uncovering of aspects of great complexity and diversity in invertebrate immunocytes, i.e.

Evidence of a Lytic Pathway in an Invertebrate Complement System: Identification of a Terminal Complement Complex Gene in a Colonial Tunicate and Its Evolutionary Implications.

The complement system is a pivotal component of innate immunity, extensively studied in vertebrates but also present in invertebrates. This study explores the existence of a terminal complement pathway in the tunicate , aiming to understand the evolutionary integration of innate and adaptive immunity. Through transcriptome analysis, we identified a novel transcript, BsITCCP, encoding a protein with both MACPF and LDLa domains-a structure resembling that of vertebrate C9 but with a simpler organization.

Clodronate Liposome-Mediated Phagocytic Hemocyte Depletion Affects the Regeneration of the Cephalic Tentacle of the Invasive Snail, .

After amputation, granular hemocytes infiltrate the blastema of regenerating cephalic tentacles of the freshwater snail . Here, the circulating phagocytic hemocytes were chemically depleted by injecting the snails with clodronate liposomes, and the effects on the cephalic tentacle regeneration onset and on -Hemocyanin, -transglutaminase (-TG) and -Allograft Inflammatory Factor-1 (-AIF-1) gene expressions were investigated. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that clodronate liposomes targeted large circulating hemocytes, resulting in a transient decrease in their number.

The Eco-Immunological Relevance of the Anti-Oxidant Response in Invasive Molluscs.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are volatile and short-lived molecules playing important roles in several physiological functions, including immunity and physiological adaptation to unsuitable environmental conditions. In an eco-immunological view, the energetic costs associated with an advantageous metabolic apparatus able to cope with wide changes in environmental parameters, e.g.

Botryllin, a Novel Antimicrobial Peptide from the Colonial Ascidian .

By mining the transcriptome of the colonial ascidian , we identified a transcript for a novel styelin-like antimicrobial peptide, which we named botryllin. The gene is constitutively transcribed by circulating cytotoxic morula cells (MCs) as a pre-propeptide that is then cleaved to mature peptide. The synthetic peptide, obtained from in silico translation of the transcript, shows robust killing activity of bacterial and unicellular yeast cells, causing breakages of both the plasma membrane and the cell wall.