Maternal transfer of immunity and ontogeny of autologous immunocompetence of fish: A minireview

The effectiveness of immunostimulation and vaccination of cultured fish heavily depends on the degree of maturity of their immune system. In this review, we summarise the recent data on the maternal transfer of humoral innate and adaptive immune parameters of fish larvae that seems to be responsible for the protection of embryos and larvae in the early stages of their development. We also look at the onset of fish immunocompetence in relation to the appearance of the different cellular components of both innate (macrophages and granulocytes) and adaptive (T and B lymphocytes) immunity. In addition, the advantages of using the powerful zebrafish model to study the development of teleost immunity are mentioned. Finally, all these data are taken into account before proposing future directions that are likely to shed light on the ontogeny of immunity in teleosts and to help in the development of appropriate vaccination regimens for either broodstock or larvae.