Antimicrobial defense of the earthworm
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Updated: Oct 7, 2026

A Visual Guide for Studying Behavioral Defenses to Pathogen Attacks in Leaf-Cutting Ants
Published on: October 12, 2018
M Bilej1, P De Baetselier, A Beschin
1Department of Immunology and Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 142 20 Prague 4, Czechia.
Abstract:
Discrimination of self and nonself is one of the features of all animal species but the ways of elimination of nonself are different. Defense strategies of invertebrates, which lack antibodies and lymphocytes, are based on innate defense mechanisms. The study of such, undoubtedly less complex, defense mechanisms in invertebrates may shed a new light on the more sophisticated immunity of vertebrates. The main aim of this review is to show on one experimental model--an oligochaete annelid--cellular and humoral defense pathways protecting against microbial infection.
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