Due to an interest in the evolutionary origins of
vertebrate mechanisms of immunorecognition, researchers
have frequently turned to deuterostome invertebrates as
model organisms. The purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus
purpuratus (Echinodermata: Echinoidea), was selected for
this study of putative immunorecognition molecules in a
deuterostome invertebrate.
Hemagglutinins, molecules which agglutinate red blood...