Immune Mechanisms in Invertebrate Vectors

These symposium papers examine how parasites in molluscs and arthropods are able to escape their vectors' immune systems. They examine the mechanisms of recognition, and the efficacy of the cellular and humoral components of the immune response. The evidence for immunosupression or evasion of recognition in various host-parasite systems, and the effects of host resistance on parasite and host populations and the theoretical implications for disease transmission are also examined.Table of ContentP Gotz: Mechanisms of encapsulation in dipteran hosts; N A Ratcliffe: Insect cellular immunity and the recogintion of foreignness; H G Boman: Antibacterial immune proteins in insects; V J Smith and K Soderhall: Cellular immune mechanisms in the Crustacea; L Renwrantz: Lectins in molluscs and arthropods: their occurrence, origin and roles in immunity; D H L Bishop and B J Beaty: Interference - immunity of mosquitoes to bunyavirus superinfection; D H Molyneux, G Tackle, E A Ibrahim and G A Ingram: Insect immunity to Trypanosomatidae; B M Christensen: Immune mechanisms and mosquito-filarial worm relationships; A M Lackie: Evasion of insect immunity by helminth larvae; W P W van der Knaap and E A Meuleman: Interaction between the immune system of lymnaeid snails and trematode parasites; E S Loker and C J Bayne: Immunity to trematode larvae in the snail Biomphalaria ; T P Yoshino and C A Boswell: Antigen sharing between larval trematodes and their snail hosts: how real a phenomenon in immune evasion?; R M Anderson: Genetic variability in resistance to parasitic invasion: population implications for invertebrate host species.