The Origin of Mucosal Immunity: Lessons from the Holobiont Hydra

Historically, mucosal immunity—i.e., the portion of the immune system that protects an organism’s various mucous membranes from invasion by potentially pathogenic microbes—has been studied in single-cell epithelia in the gastrointestinal and upper respiratory tracts of vertebrates. Phylogenetically, mucosal surfaces appeared for the first time about 560 million years ago in members of the phylum Cnidaria. There are remarkable similarities and shared functions of mucosal immunity in vertebrates and innate immunity in cnidarians, such as Hydra species. Here, we propose a common origin for both systems and review observations that indicate that the ultimately simple holobiont Hydra provides both a new perspective on the relationship between bacteria and animal cells and a new prism for viewing the emergence and evolution of epithelial tissue-based innate immunity. In addition, recent breakthroughs in our understanding of immune responses in Hydra polyps reared under defined short-term gnotobiotic conditions open up the potential of Hydra as an animal research model for the study of common mucosal disorders.