Sea anemone can tell helpful bacteria from harmful ones, scientists find

A simple sea anemone (a small plant with white, red, blue or purple flowers that are shaped like cups and have dark centres) can distinguish helpful bacteria from harmful invaders despite lacking antibodies or immune memory cells. This challenges long-held assumptions about how early animal life defends itself.Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Kiel University discovered that the starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) uses specialized mobile cell structures to selectively swallow and destroy non-native bacteria while leaving its own beneficial microbiome intact.The findings, published in Nature Communications, prove that the targeted identification of microscopic life developed hundreds of millions of years earlier in evolutionary history than scientists previously believed.Beyond the adaptive immune systemFor decades, biological textbooks taught that simple invertebrates possessed only a basic, non-specific innate immune system.