Was innate immunity already complex in early animals?

Anthozoan cnidarians retain much ancestral metazoan immune/signaling complexity; flies and worms lost many components.

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What is the innate immune system’s role?

First line of defense detecting and containing non-self cells/pathogens.

Which cnidarians are highlighted?

Acropora millepora and Nematostella vectensis.

Paradox of cnidarian genomes?

Simple morphology yet many genes once thought to evolve much later.

What have Acropora/Nematostella preserved?

Much of the genetic complexity of the common metazoan ancestor.

How do fly and worm compare for Wnts?

Each lost about half of the ancestral Wnt complement.

What receptor class is discussed for microbial challenge?

Toll / Toll-like receptors (TLRs).

Why is cnidarian immunity appliedly important?

Dramatic decline of coral reefs makes understanding their immunity significant.

Theme of the title?

Ancestral complexity and stochastic gene loss.

Compared with Drosophila/C. elegans signaling complexity?

Anthozoan datasets represent most higher-animal signaling/TF complexity.

Teaching point?

Early animals could already encode complex innate defenses; later lineages lost genes.

Complement system note?

Some invertebrates use vertebrate-like complement yet may lack central cascade components via loss.