Immune System of Fish: An Evolutionary Perspective

Fishes are the most successful and diverse group of vertebrate animals, first appeared during Devonian period. Despite of certain differences, the immune system of fish is physiologically similar to that of higher vertebrates. The heterogenous group of fishes are the apparent link between innate immunity and the first appearance of the adaptive immune response. Importantly, fishes have immune organs homologous to that of mammalian immune system. In comparison to higher vertebrates, fishes live free in their environment from the early embryonic stage and during that time mostly they are dependent on non-specific immune system for their survival. In the fishes, non-specific immunity is the fundamental defense mechanism, therewith acquired immunity also plays key role in maintaining homeostasis by activation though a system of receptors proteins, which identify pathogen associated molecular pattern typical of pathogenic microorganism includes lipopolysaccharides, peptidoglycans, DNA, RNA and other molecules that are typically not present on the surface of multicellular organism. There are several external factors like environmental factors, biological factors, stress and internal factors like genetic makeup, age and sex, maternal effect etc. can affect immunological defense capabilities of the fishes.