As a discipline, comparative immunology enhances zoology and has gained wide acceptance in the biological sciences. It is an offshoot of the parent field, immunology, and is an amalgam of immunology and zoology. All animals from protozoans to humans have solved the threat of extinction by having evolved an immune-defense strategy that ensures the capacity to react against foreign, non-self microorganisms and cancers that disturb the homeostatic self. Invertebrate-type innate immune responses evolved first and they characterize the metazoans. These rapid natural responses act immediately and are often essential for the occurrence of slower, more specific, adaptive vertebrate-type immune responses. As components of the innate immune system, there is an emphasis on several major steps in the evolutionary process: (i) recognition; (ii) the phagocytic cell; and (iii) the natural killer cell. When vertebrates evolved, beginning with fish, thymus-controlled T cells first appeared, as did bone marrow-derived B cells (first found in amphibians with long bones). These were the precursors of the plasma cells that synthesize and secrete antibodies. Confirming the concept of self/non-self, invertebrates possess natural, non-adaptive, innate, non-clonal, non-anticipatory immune responses, whereas vertebrates possess adaptive, acquired, clonal, and anticipatory responses. This symposium concerns: (i) aspects of the immune spectrum in representative groups; (ii) specific findings (in particular models; e. g. earthworms); (iii) clues as to the possible biomedical application of relevant molecules derived from animals, notably invertebrates; and (iv) some views on the more practical applications of understanding immune systems of invertebrates and ectotherms, and their possible role in survival.
