Background & Aims: Sea urchin immune responses are directly exposed to potentially pathogenic microorganisms and develop defence responses mainly based on immunocytes and humoral factors contained in the coelomic fluid. In addition, the polyhydroxylated 1, 4-naphthoquinone pigments are found to possess excellent antimicrobial, antialgal and antioxidant activities. The present ...

Reported structural abnormalities mostly concern the echinoid test; these are not uncommon and indicate great plasticity of the echinoids. More than 400 animal agents have been reported from echinoderms. Most external agents either have processes that penetrate the body wall or live in cysts or galls on or in the body wall; intradigestive agents usually occur free in the digestive cavity; inter...

Myotubularins (MTMs) constitute a large family of lipid phosphatases that specifically dephosphorylate phosphatidylinositol (3)P. MTM1 and MTM2 are mutated in X-linked myotubular myopathy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (type 4B), respectively, although the mechanisms whereby MTM dysfunction leads to these diseases is unknown. To gain insight into MTM function, we undertook the study of MTMs in...

To elucidate the origin and evolution of mannan-binding lectins (MBL), a new C-type lectin (CTL) specific for high-mannose glycans (MBL-AJ) was isolated from the coelomic plasma of the holothurian Apostichopus japonicus. MBL-AJ has oligomeric forms with identical 17-kDa subunits on SDS-PAGE. Among natural ligands, lectin hemagglutination activity was competitively inhibited by extracellular low...

Manufactured nanoparticles have a wide range of application due to their advantageous properties whencompared with their bulk forms. There is a growing concern regarding the safety of nanoparticles. This studyaimed to evaluate the cell membrane lipoperoxidation (LPO) and DNA integrity in red earthworm Lumbricusrubellus when exposed to artificial soil systems containing different concentration o...

Earthworms serve as good indicators of heavy metal contamination due to their innate sensitivity towards soil pollution. However, to date, not many studies have focused on endogeic earthworms, such as the omnipresent Allolobophora chlorotica. The current study was designed to verify whether this earthworm could serve as a novel distinctively susceptible species for environmental contamination s...

The purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, is a member of the phylum Echinodermata, which is basal to the phylum Chordata within the deuterostome lineage of the animal kingdom. This relationship makes the analysis of the sea urchin immune system relevant to understanding the evolution of the deuterostome immune system leading to the Vertebrata. Subtractive suppression hybridization w...

The California purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, is a long-lived echinoderm with a complex and sophisticated innate immune system. There are several large gene families that function in immunity in this species including the Sp185/333 gene family that has ∼50 (±10) members. The family shows intriguing sequence diversity and encodes a broad array of diverse yet similar proteins. ...

BACKGROUND Developing methods for protecting organisms in metal-polluted environments is contingent upon our understanding of cellular detoxification mechanisms. In this regard, half-molecule ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters of the HMT-1 subfamily are required for cadmium (Cd) detoxification. HMTs have conserved structural architecture that distinguishes them from other ABC transporters ...

The complex innate immune system of sea urchins is underpinned by several multigene families including the SpTransformer family (SpTrf; formerly Sp185/333) with estimates of ~50 members, although the family size is likely variable among individuals of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. The genes are small with similar structure, are tightly clustered, and have several types of repeats in the second...