Innate immune responses of a lepidopteran insect, Manduca sexta

Many innate immune mechanisms are conserved throughout the animal kingdom. Manduca sexta, a widely used model for insect biochemical research, employs these mechanisms to defend against invading pathogens and parasites. We have isolated from M. sexta hemolymph a group of proteins (hemolin, peptidoglycan recognition proteins, beta-1,3-glucan recognition proteins, and C-type lectins), which serve as a surveillance mechanism by binding to microbial...