The fly Drosophila subobscura: A natural case of innate immunity deficiency

Structural and functional characterization of pseudopodocyte, a shaggy immune cell produced by two Drosophila species of the obscura group

“…However, recent works on Drosophila hemocytes lineage showed that plasmatocytes could indeed differentiate into lamellocytes (Honti et al, 2010;Avet-Rochex et al, 2010;Stofanko et al, 2010). Despite lamellocytes having long been considered the major hemocyte type forming the bulk of capsules in Drosophila (Brehélin and Duvic, 1999), we have shown that not all Drosophila species actually possess this cell type (Eslin and Doury, 2006;Eslin et al, 2009;Havard et al, 2009). In fact, seven Drosophila species of the obscura group are unable to encapsulate foreign bodies and were reported lacking lamellocytes.…”

“…A 10 nL paraffin oil droplet was microinjected into second instar larvae of D. melanogaster (96 h after egg laying), D. affinis, and D. obscura (120 h after egg laying) as previously described in Eslin and Doury (2006).…”

The Host Defense of Drosophila melanogaster

“…Encapsulation is a dramatic defense reaction against invading parasites that is mediated by lamellocytes in Drosophila larvae. The encapsulation reaction has essentially been analyzed using wasps that lay their eggs into the hemocoel of larvae, but it can also be induced by the injection of an oil droplet (Figure 6, and see Figure 8b,c) (165,183). The wasp egg is detected by plasmatocytes, which exert a permanent immune surveillance in circulation (184).…”

The Avoided Target: The Ceratitis capitata Cellular Encapsulation Response

“…Evidence for genetic components to CHC and the encapsulation response is abundant. Larvae of D. subobscura have hemocytes but cannot produce lamellocytes or encapsulate parasitoid wasp eggs [66]. Geographically different natural populations of D. melanogaster exhibit variable CHC values and encapsulation rates of Asobara tabida [67].…”