DEEP WORK

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are approximately 21- nucleotide-long RNA regulators of gene expression1–3, have become a major focus of research in molecular biology. Although for a long time they were considered to be exclusive to multicellular organisms and possibly essential for the transition to a more complex organism design, the recent identification of miRNAs in the unicellular algae Chlamydom..

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (20–23-nucleotide), endogenous, single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression1 . Mature miRNAs and Argonaute (Ago) proteins form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), a ribonucleoprotein complex mediating posttranscriptional gene silencing2–5. Complementary base-pairing of the miRNA guides RISC to target messenger RNAs, which are degraded, destabili..

IntroductionInnate immunity is evolutionarily conserved and acts as the first line of host defence against pathogen infections. Detection of microbial pathogen is an essential step in the initiation of innate immune responses and is mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs; Janeway & Medzhitov 2002; Takeuchi & Akira 2010). PRRs are microbial sensors of the innate immune system that can re..

I. INTRODUCTION Our understanding of physiology has benefited greatly from the advances in molecular biology that have been at the origin of the explosive development of genetics and -omic techniques. What used to be a rarity a few decades ago, studying the expression and function of a given molecule within a different physiological system from the one in which it was first identified, has now b..

1. IntroductionFollowing virus challenge, fish mount an early antiviral response by activating the innate immune system [1–3] and later on another response takes place in the way of antibody production [4,5] and cytotoxic T-cell immunity [6]. Here, the focus will be set on the activation of five genes in the interferon pathway that could be regarded as the most relevant in the response to viral ..

4.1 IntroductionFish are in continuous contact with a wide variety of nonpathogenic and pathogenic microbes present in the aquatic environment, and therefore, have developed mechanisms to guarantee their survival. The normal structure and function of the fish integument reflects the adaptation of the organism to the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the aquatic environment, and th..

3.1 IntroductionThe organs and tissues comprising mucosae and mucosal surfaces of teleost fish are both structurally and functionally similar in many respects to their mammalian counterparts including man, despite roughly 450 million years of evolutionary separation. Teleostean fish were among the first vertebrate animals to display mucosal immune defenses, particularly adaptive immunity within ..

1.1 Why mucosal health?Aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of agriculture and is expected to maintain its rapid growth in coming decades in the face of rising world populations and declining wildcatch fisheries. Roughly half of all seafood for public consumption is now farmed. An ever-growing number of fish and shellfish species is either being grown commercially or being evaluated for aqu..

Innate Discrimination between Viral and Self Nucleic Acids The innate recognition pathways described above are exquisitely sensitive to the presence of viral nucleic acids but are generally silent in the absence of infection. However, the reasons for this robust virus versus self discrimination are still not fully understood. Clearly, some viral nucleic acids have features of PAMPs, which allow ..

Many immunologists think about immune responses to virus infection in terms of production of neutralizing antibodies and induction of cytotoxic activity in T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells. Although these are clearly essential for immunity to viruses that have coevolved with vertebrates (Hedrick, 2004), there are other layers of antiviral defense that operate independently of lymphocy..