The immunogenetics of sexual parasitism

Reconfiguring an immune response The deep sea is a vast and generally empty environment. Finding a mate can thus be difficult. In response to this situation, one group of deep-sea denizens, the anglerfishes, have evolved a system in which males attach to females, in some cases permanently, through fusion of tissues and connection of circulatory systems. Such attachment greatly challenges the immune systems of the fish. Swann et al. found that these challenges have been met by the evolution of increasingly reduced immune responses among anglerfish species, including the loss of what have been considered essential vertebrate responses. These shifts suggest that vertebrate immune systems may be more flexible over evolutionary time than was previously thought. Science , this issue p. 1608