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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Quantification of the Respiratory Burst Response as an Indicator of Innate Immune Health in Zebrafish
Published on: September 12, 2013
Invertebrate immunity and the limits of mechanistic immunology
Tom J Little1, Dan Hultmark, Andrew F Read
1Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK. tom.little@ed.ac.uk <tom.little@ed.ac.uk>
Abstract:
Rapid progress is being made in elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in invertebrate immunity. This search for molecules runs the risk of missing important phenomena. In vertebrates, acquired protection and pathogen-specific responses were demonstrated experimentally long before the mechanisms responsible were elucidated. Without analogous experiments, mechanism-driven work may not demonstrate the full richness of invertebrate immunity.
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