title: Review: Immunity mechanisms in crustaceans.
abstract: Crustacean aquaculture represents a major industry in tropical developing countries. As a result of high culture densities and increasing extension of aquaculture farms, the presence of diseases has also increased, inducing economic losses. Invertebrates, which lack adaptive immune systems, have developed defense systems that respond against antigens on the surface of potential pathogens. The defense mechanisms of crustaceans depend completely on the innate immune system that is activated when pathogen-associated molecular patterns are recognized by soluble or by cell surface host proteins, such as lectins, antimicrobial, clotting, and pattern recognition proteins, which, in turn, activate cellular or humoral effector mechanisms to destroy invading pathogens. This work is aimed at presenting the main characteristics of the crustacean proteins that participate in immune defense by specific recognition of carbohydrate containing molecules, i.e. glycans, glycolipids, glycoproteins, peptidoglycans, or lipopolysaccharides from Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, viruses, or fungi. We review some basic aspects of crustacean effector defense processes, like agglutination, encapsulation, phagocytosis, clottable proteins, and bactericidal activity, induced by these carbohydrate-driven recognition patterns.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Lectinas, CIQ, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. lvazquez@mklinux.dti.uaem.mx
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vazquez
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alpuche
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maldonado
authors.forename: Concepción
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Agundis
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pereyra-Morales
authors.forename: Edgar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zenteno
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004156:Catechol Oxidase / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D003445:Crustacea / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004792:Enzyme Precursors / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D037102:Lectins / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D010587:Phagocytosis / Q000276:immunology*; D051192:Receptors, Pattern Recognition / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D004792:Enzyme Precursors; D037102:Lectins; D051192:Receptors, Pattern Recognition; C038451:pro-phenoloxidase; D004156:Catechol Oxidase