Abstract
Investigations of echinoderm immune systems can be traced back to the groundbreaking work of Ilya Metchnikoff, who laid the foundation for the field of cellular immunology based on his initial observations of phagocytosis and nonself recognition in starfish and sea urchin larvae. Echinoderms belong to the same superphylum as the vertebrates (the deuterostomes). Consequently, echinoderms share homologs of many important immune factors with vertebrates, but have also evolved novel immune mechanisms that appear to be specific to this lineage. Surveys of the sea urchin and starfish genome sequences reveal extensive expansions of gene families that encode pattern recognition receptors. Echinoderms have complex immune systems that differ greatly from those that have been characterized in other animals, including vertebrates and insects. New genomic tools, together with the long-standing experimental power of this model in the field of developmental biology, now provide opportunities for further advancing the understanding of these systems.
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