Lamprey: an important animal model of evolution and disease research

Lamprey is one representative of the extant jawless vertebrates, known as "living fossils", with a history of more than 500 million years. The ancient lamprey has attracted the attention of many scholars due to its unique functional characteristics and evolutionary status. In terms of immune system, the lamprey has adaptive immune system and immune molecules different from those of jawed vertebrates. Based on the evolutionary status, lamprey is an important developmental and evolutionary animal model for analyses of evolutionary conservation and derivative characteristics of vertebrates. Lamprey pallium provides an evolutionary blueprint for mammalian cerebral cortex. In disease research, lamprey has provided various results as a pathological model of spinal cord injury and biliary atresia. In this review, the life cycle, immune molecules, developmental evolution and physiological structure of lamprey are presented in details in reference with relevant reports from China and abroad. We believe that in-depth studies of lamprey could promote an effective outcome(s) in the research on genetics of animal development and biomedicine.