title: Antimicrobial defense of the earthworm.
abstract: Discrimination of self and nonself is one of the features of all animal species but the ways of elimination of nonself are different. Defense strategies of invertebrates, which lack antibodies and lymphocytes, are based on innate defense mechanisms. The study of such, undoubtedly less complex, defense mechanisms in invertebrates may shed a new light on the more sophisticated immunity of vertebrates. The main aim of this review is to show on one experimental model--an oligochaete annelid--cellular and humoral defense pathways protecting against microbial infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 142 20 Prague 4, Czechia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilej
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Baetselier
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beschin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D003603:Cytotoxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D037102:Lectins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009835:Oligochaeta / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014118:Toxins, Biological
chemical_list: D003603:Cytotoxins; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; D037102:Lectins; D011506:Proteins; D014118:Toxins, Biological; C094795:coelomic cytolytic factor 1, Eisenia fetida; C103929:fetidin; C107040:lysenin