Even invertebrates are capable of recognising specific pathogens

Researchers at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Kiel University investigated the function of the immune system in a simple organism, the sea anemone. The scientists headed by Prof. Sebastian Fraune discovered that the immune system of these animals is capable of distinguishing specifically between different microorganisms and thus favouring beneficial bacteria over harmful ones – an ability previously attributed only to vertebrates. ‘Nematosomes’ play a key role in this process, as the researchers now describe in the journal Nature Communications. The findings were produced within the CRC 1182.