Algal symbionts go through a lot for their acoel host: ingested, stripped of cell wall and flagella, displaced to all tissues, both intra- and extracellular. Animal grows, gets nutrients and some stress responses. With @hejnol.bsky.social @rimskaya.bsky.social Preprint at doi.org/10.64898/202...

First paper of my PhD published 🎉 doi.org/10.1186/s129... It's about immunity in acoel worms and its link to photosymbiosis. There's evolution and immune gene expression, but also mortality, dysbiosis, and host responses upon pathogen exposure. With @hejnol.bsky.social and @rimskaya.bsky.social!

Absence of conserved immune signalling pathways and increased pathogen susceptibility associated to photosymbiosis in acoels - BMC Biology

Background Host immunity plays an important role in coral symbiosis with dinoflagellates. Photosymbiosis (the association between hosts and photosynthetic endosymbionts) has evolved multiple times wit...

doi.org