Activation of Artemia Immune System

Artemia culture development is needed to support the sustainability of larviculture production, especially for marine fish and shrimp commodities. However, one of the major constraint in the Artemia production is the emergence of new diseases both infectious and non-infectious that have an impact to their quality and survival rate. Among the pathogenic microorganisms, bacteria belong to genus Vibrio spp dominating the type of diseases in Artemia culture system. As with any group of invertebrates, Artemia does not have an adaptive immune system. Thus, they completely depend on their innate immune system which is also believed lack of memory system. One of the natural or innate immune system in Artemia is through the activation of prophenoloxidase (proPO) and phenoloxidase (PO) that play an important role in the process of melanization, cell-adhesion, degranulation and encapsulation. Below we presented a simple graph (modified from Brown and Gordon 2005) that describe a variety of immune responses in Artemia and other invertebrates which can be activated by using β-glucan.

Key words: Immune system, β-glukan, Artemia, Prophenoloxidase, Phenoloxidase, Vibrio spp, Immunostimulant