Does Every Species Have an Immune System?

[wenxian]

i was told that only mammals have(can produce by their own) antibody...
then how abt other animals like reptile,bird n fish??
without antibody,how can those animals protect themselves against diseases??

 

[JHamm]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1317265/

While it is clear that all birds have the typical vertebrate adaptive immune system and can produce antibodies

It seems like you were told some hooey.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Plants have an immune system as well:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/nature05286.html

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Plants have an immune system as well:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/nature05286.html

But do plants use antibodies as part of their immune system? I thought plants had only an innate immune system and lacked an adaptive immune system.

 

[Andy Resnick]

But do plants use antibodies as part of their immune system? I thought plants had only an innate immune system and lacked an adaptive immune system.

Good question- I'm not an expert. The Nature article states "Plants, unlike mammals, lack mobile defender cells and a somatic adaptive immune system." I couldn't decipher all the pathways discussed.

http://www.stanford.edu/class/mi104/Plant immunity.pdf

I'm thinking about the 'systemic acquired resistance', if that is a reasonable analog.

 

[atyy]

I think antibodies (immunoglobulins) are restricted to vertebrates.

Plants have other defences. In addition to the mechanisms described Andy Resnick's link, plants have an anti-virus system.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC157182/pdf/1070679.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_interference

The wikipedia article says that RNA interference may have an anti-virus purpose not only in plants, but also in invetebrates such as flies and worms.

 

[Pythagorean]

it would make sense that they are restricted to vertebrates. Antibodies are white blood cells, which are derived form bone marrow cells. Anything non animals would probably be a case of convergent evolution, wouldn't it?

I guess a non-vertebrate (chordate) could have the same cells, I'm not really sure at what point in the "dividing line" the cells actually originated.

 

[atyy]

it would make sense that they are restricted to vertebrates. Antibodies are white blood cells, which are derived form bone marrow cells. Anything non animals would probably be a case of convergent evolution, wouldn't it?

I guess a non-vertebrate (chordate) could have the same cells, I'm not really sure at what point in the "dividing line" the cells actually originated.

Wow, yes - there are invertebrates with antibodies. Googling turns up http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20040830/wilson.html: "Sharks are the most primitive animals known to have antibodies"!

 

[Pythagorean]

aren't sharks vertebrates?

 

[bobze]

aren't sharks vertebrates?

Yes they belong to the phylum chordata> subphylum vertebrata.

Vertebrates are chordates (notochords) with back"bones" that persist through life. In sharks, skates and rays however this is composed of cartilage, not bone.

 

[atyy]

aren't sharks vertebrates?

Ooops, yes. So in fact antibodies are restricted to vertebrates.

 

[feathermoon]

I was just reading about certain proteins that exist in the human eye which are potent antibacterials. I'm sure there are plenty of options in nature for fighting off illnesses besides antibodies. Really interesting stuff!

 

[bobze]

I was just reading about certain proteins that exist in the human eye which are potent antibacterials. I'm sure there are plenty of options in nature for fighting off illnesses besides antibodies. Really interesting stuff!

In deed, the most potent antimicrobials actually come from microbes themselves (a couple billion years of microbe on microbe violence--They have developed biological ways to kill each other that make our technology for harm and genocide look paltry! ). Antibiotics for example!

 

[Mech_Engineer]

I hear alligator blood may be a source of new super-antibiotics:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080407-alligator-blood.html

Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics.

In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Study co-author Lancia Darville at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge believes that peptides—fragments of proteins—within alligator blood help the animals stave off fatal infections.

 

[lpetrich]

There are two kinds of immune system: innate and adaptive. The innate sort of immune system is the most widespread one, while only jawed vertebrates have an adaptive immune system.

Origin of the Metazoan Immune System: Identification of the Molecules and Their Functions in Sponges
The plant immune system : Article : Nature
Both innate.

 

[thiago naka]

i was told that only mammals have(can produce by their own) antibody...
then how abt other animals like reptile,bird n fish??
without antibody,how can those animals protect themselves against diseases??

many prokaryotes also have adaptive immune system. But, they provides RNA-guided destruction of foreign genetic material. And the process is distinct from RNA interference (RNAi).

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7385/full/nature10886.html

 

[SteamKing]

Well, antibiotic drugs like penicillin were developed from certain species of fungi, as are the sporin compounds used in topical antiseptic ointments. (Neosporin, e.g.)

 

[SW VandeCarr]

Well, antibiotic drugs like penicillin were developed from certain species of fungi, as are the sporin compounds used in topical antiseptic ointments. (Neosporin, e.g.)

While this is true, it's a different mechanism than immune responses which, at least in humans, is primarily mediated by protein antibodies produced by B cell lymphocytes as well as by T cell based activity. Beta lactam drugs such as penicillin derivatives work by interfering with bacterial cell wall synthesis. These are specifically bacteriocidal chemical agents rather than immunologic mechanisms.

 

[lpetrich]

Most of the animal kingdom likely has an innate immune system (Uncovering the evolutionary history of innate immunity: the simple metazoan Hydra uses epithelial cells for host defence. [Dev Comp Immunol. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI -- body-surface cells)

But only vertebrates have an adaptive immune system, one that can learn to respond to specific organisms. That's the kind of immune system that makes antibodies proper, though innate systems can make antibody-like molecules. Not just mammals make them, but also other land vertebrates and fish (The fight between the teleost fish immune response and aquatic viruses. [Mol Immunol. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI -- I found several papers on antibodies made by chickens, turtles, and frogs).

 

[Curious3141]

Antibodies are white blood cells

Antibodies are not white blood cells, they are not cells at all. They are proteins belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily, and they are produced by certain classes of white blood cells called B lymphocytes and plasma cells.

 

[Pythagorean]

I agree, not sure what I was thinking or if I just misspoke. Old post.

 

[aaa16797]

It may seem like other species and other animal kingdoms may not have immune systems, but actually they must all have one to survive. With a circulatory system often comes an immune system and fish and birds too have circulatory systems. Also, plants have circulatory systems (xylem and phloem), which can also be used to transport antibodies.

BTW, Curious3141 is correct, antibodies themselves are proteins. They are designed specifically to attach to the "thing" that needs to be "marked" for macro-phages to consume.