Immune diversity in lophotrochozoans, with a focus on recognition and effector systems

Abstract

Lophotrochozoa is one of the most species-rich but immunologically poorly explored phyla. Although lack of acquired response in a narrow sense, lophotrochozoans possess various genetic mechanisms that enhance the diversity and specificity of innate immune system. Here, we review the recent advances of comparative immunology studies in lophotrochozoans with focus on immune recognition and effector systems. Haemocytes and coelomocytes are general important yet understudied player. Comparative genomics studies suggest expansion and functional divergence of lophotrochozoan immune reorganization systems is not as "homogeneous and simple" as we thought including the large-scale expansion and molecular divergence of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) (TLRs, RLRs, lectins, etc.) and signaling adapters (MyD88s etc.), significant domain recombination of immune receptors (RLR, NLRs, lectins, etc.), extensive somatic recombination of fibrinogenrelated proteins (FREPs) in snails. Furthermore, there are repeatedly identified molecular mechanisms that generate immune effector diversity, including high polymorphism of antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPs), reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and cytokines. Finally, we argue that the next generation omics tools and the recently emerged genome editing technicism will revolutionize our understanding of innate immune system in a comparative immunology perspective.

Keywords: Diversification; Innate immunity; Lophotrochozoa; PRRs.

Fig. 1

Simplified phylogenetic tree depicting the general relationships of major lophotrochozoa superphyla. The blue shaded box denote the lophotrochozoa superphyla.

Fig. 2

Comparison of gene families encoding TLR, MyD88, RLR and NLR immune receptors in representative animals , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Data sources: http://compagen.unit.oist.jp/aurelia/datasets.html; https://www.uniprot.org/proteomes/UP000593567; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4556028; https://github.com/rannypribeiro/Regeneration_transcriptomics; http://bigd.big.ac.cn/gwh/(GWHACBE00000000); https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.h9942.

Fig. 3

The mechanisms of innate immunity diversity in lophotrochozoans.