Skip Navigation

American Zoologist 1983 23(1):173-183; doi:10.1093/icb/23.1.173
© 1983 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MCCUMBER, L. J.
Right arrow Articles by CLEM, L. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Recognition of Non-self in Crustaceans1

LARRY J. MCCUMBER and L. WILLIAM CLEM
Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia, South Carolina 29208
Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center Jackson, Mississippi 39216

This paper reviews the current concepts of recognition of non-self in crustaceans and relates these concepts to recognition in the invertebrates in general. It focuses primarily on a decapod crustacean, the blue crab(callinectes sapidus)and on results using this animal as a model to study the clearance of viruses and xenogeneic proteins. Clearance studies indicate that blue crabs possess a quasi-specific recognition system in the normal or "non-immunized"state. This system is capable of rapidly clearing foreign proteins and certain viruses from the circulation, and results in concentration of such proteins into the gills and viruses into the hepatopancreas or gills. Although humoral factors which bind foreign proteins or neutralize viruses have been isolated, transfusion exchange experiments involving depletion of circulating cells and/or humoral factors indicate that the blue crab does not require circulating hemocytes or humoral factors for clearance of foreign proteins. These results suggest that a population of fixed cells, possibly those in the gills, may be the critical component for recognition of foreign proteins by normal crabs.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.