Chapter 9 – Immune Effectors in Amphioxus

The genomic annotation of amphioxus genome reveals an extraordinary complexity and diversity of immune effector genes in amphioxus. Transcriptomic analysis combined with qRT-PCR has suggested a dynamic and sequential profile of these immune effectors in response to bacterial infection. Further functional analyses on these major effectors and others provide us with an understanding of how these immune effectors evolved and function in response to bacterial challenge. This chapter introduces functional characterizations of galectin, C-type lectins, peptidoglycan recognition proteins, gram-negative bacteria–binding proteins, chitin-binding proteins, apextrin-like proteins, bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein, lysozymes, intelectin, transferrin, and a tachylectin-related homolog.