Immunology in sea urchins

Immunology is a very important subject and has important consequences for sea urchins in the field and in culture and also in the selection of the wild populations, especially because the sea urchin adults have limited capacity of moving when the environment changes, although dispersal by larvae is possible. Larvae and embryos have an incipient immune system, but only adults have a true immune system and are under selective pressure. At the moment, the most important functions seem to be opsonization and phagocytosis. It is very important to understand the sea urchin's immune system due to their phylogenetic position at the base of the chordate lineage.